Fostering Basics
What is foster care?
Foster care is when a child comes into a different family. A foster care family, and lives with that family for a short period of time. It may be for a very short period of time, or it may be for a very long period of time. A foster family is a substitute family.
Who decides if a child is to be taken into care?
Well, if a child comes into care with the agreement of the parents, then the child can come into care under what's called a voluntary basis. If the child comes into care and the parents are opposing that, then the child can only come into care through a care order, and that's an order of the court.
How old are children who are fostered?
Foster children range from tiny babies to teenagers.
What is the difference between adoption and fostering?
Well, the main difference is, in adoption parental responsibility or legal responsibility for the child will transfer over the course of the adoption from the birth parents to the adoptive parents. In fostering, parental responsibility remains with the birth parents and with the local authority.
Why is a child fostered instead of adopted?
Well adoption may be absolutely the right answer for some children, but if you look at the figures, at any one time there are 60,000 children in care but only 3,700 children on the latest figures are adopted, that's about 6 percent, and that's because most children who come into care actually go home. So for those children, adoption would be entirely wrong. There's no need to break that link between the child and their birth family, and for those children, maybe because there's a problem within the family at a particular time or maybe because there's a need for specific work to be done with the family over a short period of time, fostering's absolutely the right answer.
What happens to children in care who aren't in foster care?
About 70% of children are in foster care at any one time. Then about another 10% of children will be in residental care, so they'll be living in children's homes. The other children may actually be placed back at home with their parents, but that relationship will be monitored quite closely by social services. Or the children may be living in another setting, perhaps with relatives.
What happens to children after fostering?
Children may come into foster care literally for a few days, for short break. They may come into care for weeks or months. They may come into foster care for years. And so it depends very much on the individual child. But what social services will be trying to do when a child is in foster care, particularly when they're in foster care for a short period of time, is to work with the child and with the family to enable the child to go home.
What do foster children tend to be like?
Foster children are like any other children. But first and foremost, they are children. And I think everybody really needs to remember that. They may be in a caste system, but fundamentally they're children and young people. But they may be children and young people who've had very difficult early experiences. They may have been harmed. A foster child may have been abused and neglected. They may have lived in very chaotic households. They may have lived with parents who are misusing drugs or where there's domestic violence or where there's other problems in the household. They may have not had boundaries set for them. They may just be very confused and sad. Children are young people. So they may need lots of very careful nurturing and care in order to help them to adjust to life in foster care and to start enjoying their childhood again.
