There are many types of Foster Placements & many ways you can help a vulnerable child through fostering. It is about providing a safe and secure place for them to live whether it is or a few days or for years.

At Elite, we believe anybody can become a foster carer and we welcome people from all backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities. So, if you want to pursue this rewarding career, you only need a spare bedroom and to undergo an assessment and must pass checks.

Emergency foster care

Emergency foster carers are available to offer a foster placement at short notice, 24 hours a day. These placements are made usually with very little preparations. For example; if the lone parent is taken to hospital and there is no one to look after the child or young person. Another example could be if the child’s home environment is unsafe, or if their usual parent/guardian has become unwell. Whether that be physical or mental health issues. Children and young people placed in emergency placements usually move out to a short-term placement or move back to their foster carers, birth families, or extended family members.

Short term foster care

Where children and young people are matched with a foster carer. They can support them for weeks, months, or sometimes more than a year. This is whilst decisions are being made in respect of their permanency plans such as a longer-term fostering placement or adoption. This can follow on from an emergency foster placement, or it can happen on its own. Short term fostering can mean anything from an overnight stay to a period of a few months.

Long term foster care

In some situations, a child may not be able to go back to live with their own families. Longer term fostering allows children and young people to stay with a family where they feel secure. The local authority responsible will make sure that the Foster carer involved has been assessed in their abilities to carry out the childs needs. This includes the foster children’s wishes and feelings on the matter must be taken into consideration when discussing the child’s welfare. Contact with their birth family happens when deemed appropriate, and a new plan is put in place and signed by the Foster carer. This type of long term fostering can also be called permanent placements, as the child stays in foster care until they become adults.

Long term foster care

In some situations, a child may not be able to go back to live with their own families. Longer term fostering allows children and young people to stay with a family where they feel secure. The local authority responsible will make sure that the Foster carer involved has been assessed in their abilities to carry out the child’s needs.

This includes the foster children’s wishes and feelings on the matter must be taken into consideration when discussing the child’s welfare. Contact with their birth family happens when deemed appropriate, and a new plan is put in place and signed by the Foster carer. This type of long term fostering can also be called permanent placements, as the child stays in foster care until they become adults.

Brother and Sister foster care

This is a type of fostering where brothers and sisters live together. This can have a significant positive effect on the well-being of the Foster children involved. It’s often siblings have been through very similar experiences, and find great comfort in having the other around.

Parent and Child foster care

Where foster carers care for both parents and children, which is often a young mother or a father. Sometimes, both the father and the mother come to stay with a foster carer with his/her/their baby. The foster carer supports the parents and support and enable them to look after the baby. This can be an assessment placement where the foster carer continuously assesses the parenting abilities of the parent.

Parent and child fostering placements can help young parents with the extra parental support they need. Including, having to refer them to residential units where their parenting is assessed.

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Short Break care fostering

Where approved foster carers offer placements at regular intervals to offer respite for birth families. This can sometimes be known as “shared care” as it covers a variety of different types of part-time care. It can be from a few hours a week, to a couple of weekends each month, to even a full week or two weeks.

Respite Foster care

Respite placements are offered to foster carers for many different reasons. This could be to give foster carers a break, or maybe a foster carer needs to travel abroad for an emergency. Children with disabilities, families may need some respite care in order to look after their other children. This can help with other children potentially feeling left out.

Find out more about respite care fostering.