Types Of Fostering Medway Kent

Types of fostering

There are several different types of fostering arrangements, designed to meet the needs of the child and their current situation.

Request A Brochure Get In Touch

Long-term foster care

Long-term fostering means that the child lives with a foster family for an extended period of time, which is usually classed as two years or more and often until the child reaches adulthood. This type of fostering is usually considered when a child cannot return to their birth family, which may be due to a variety of reasons, ongoing and irreversible safety concerns, parents who are unable to care for them, or other significant issues.

Long-term fostering provides the child with a more stable and continuous home environment, which is crucial for their emotional and psychological well-being. It allows children time to form lasting, meaningful relationships with their foster parents and potentially with the foster parents’ extended family. Foster parents are able to support the child’s education, social development, and overall growth, just as they would for their own children and assume day-to-day responsibilities for the child’s care.

Depending on each child’s situation and if deemed beneficial, there may be arrangements for the child to maintain contact with their birth family. In some cases, long-term fostering may transition to adoption if it becomes clear that reunification with the birth family is not possible and both the foster family and child wish to pursue adoption.

The aim is to provide a nurturing and stable environment that promotes the child’s well-being and development over the long term.

Short-term foster care

Short-term fostering is a type of foster care arrangement where a child is placed with a foster family for a brief and temporary period. This can vary from a few days to a couple of years depending on the child’s needs and the circumstances.

The child may have come into care in an emergency and need temporary care, due to parental abandonment, or abuse or while parents address issues with things like health, housing or other personal crises. The child will stay with the foster family until a longer-term plan of care is decided.

Assessment periods help social workers to better understand the circumstances involving the child’s arrival into care and their longer-term needs. Sometimes these assessments are straightforward and fast, other times they can be very complex and take much longer.

Ultimately, the foster family will be caring for their foster child until they can either return to their birth family, move to a long-term foster family or residential care or be adopted. If long-term foster care is decided and the child is thriving with their current family, the foster parents are likely to be asked if they are happy to continue to care for the child long-term.

The primary goal of short-term fostering is to provide a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for children during a time of transition or crisis.

Kinship foster care

Often called family and friends foster care, kinship care is an arrangement where children live with family members or friends while they are unable to live with their own parents instead of with unrelated foster carers.

It is often preferred as it allows the child to stay within their extended family or social network and a familiar environment for the child.

Kinship care can be formal, involving the local authority and with carers being approved as foster parents or informal, often through private family arrangements. Kinship carers are entitled to various forms of support from the child’s local authority, including financial assistance, training, and access to social services. Local authorities are responsible for providing ongoing support to ensure the well-being of both the child and the carers.

Emergency foster care

Emergency foster care relates to foster care provided at very short notice. It is unplanned and can be overnight or for a few days, when a child needs immediate protection and care, providing a temporary solution until a more permanent arrangement can be made.

Emergency foster care is often needed due to various urgent circumstances, such as a family crisis or a breakdown in familial relationships. It may be that parents or guardians are suddenly unable to care for their children due to illness, mental health issues, or other emergencies. There are also situations when a child is deemed at risk of harm or neglect and needs to be immediately removed from their current environment for their safety. Police may be involved, needing to remove a child from a situation where they are in danger, such as domestic violence incidents.

Emergency foster parents need to have immediate availability and be ready to take in a child on very short notice, often within a few hours. They need to be adaptable and prepared for the unpredictable nature of emergency fostering. The primary goal is to offer a safe, stable, and supportive environment for the child during a critical time so emergency foster parents need to be skilled in working with children who may be distressed or traumatised. Emergency foster parents are a critical component of the child protection and welfare system, ensuring that vulnerable children have a safe haven during times of crisis.

Fostering to adoption

Also known as “foster-to-adopt”, fostering to adoption involves foster parents providing a temporary home to babies or children in the foster care system to adopt if the baby or child is unable to return to their birth families.

This process can offer a stable and nurturing environment for children, avoiding the need for any additional moves between families and also giving foster parents the chance to become permanent parents to children that they know well and have already been caring for. The process can be uncertain, as the primary goal is often reunification with the birth family and there can be emotional challenges for both the child and the foster carers, especially if reunification efforts are prolonged or unsuccessful.

However, fostering to adoption can be a rewarding path for those looking to provide a permanent home to children in need. It requires a deep commitment, flexibility, and a willingness to navigate the complexities of the foster care and adoption systems. By offering stability and love, foster-to-adopt carers play a crucial role in the lives of children, providing them with the opportunity to thrive in a permanent family setting. Many local authorities have foster-to-adopt schemes in place for those living in their area.

Respite fostering

Respite foster care provides short-term relief for foster parents. This care is crucial for giving caregivers a break, ensuring they can rest, attend to personal matters or difficulties, or simply recharge, which ultimately helps to prevent breakdowns or burnout and maintains the quality of care for children.

Children who have been subjected to trauma can have a much greater need for foster parents’ time and attention than a child who has enjoyed a settled, stable start in life. This can be emotionally draining and foster parents can benefit from time to recharge and reset. This can be the difference between foster parents feeling able to continue and provide long term care to their foster child or sadly deciding that they cannot continue to provide care for the child. The child themselves may also benefit from a break, experiencing fun new environments and continuing to receive high quality care in a stable environment with a respite foster family.

Respite care can vary in duration from a few hours to a couple of weeks, depending on the needs of the caregivers and foster child. Some children have regular respite with another family and often look forward to that time.

Respite foster parents go through the same assessment process as full time foster parents.

Parent and child fostering

Parent and child fostering (often called mother and baby fostering) is a specialised type of foster care arrangement with foster families providing care and support to a parent or parents and their child or children. Foster Parents are a key part of the team assessing a parent’s abilities when social services have raised concerns about parenting skills or circumstances.

Key qualities that we look for in parent and child foster parents are patience, understanding, warmth, resilience and creativity. Parent and child foster parents must be able to juggle the needs, not only of the child but also of the parent and be aware of their journey so that they can help them improve their parenting skills and better evaluate their life choices. Parent and child fostering plays a crucial role in helping families in crisis and preserving family units.

Parent and child fostering is designed to help parents who are facing challenges or difficulties in caring for their child or children, such as young parents or those needing additional support to address specific issues in their lives. Parent and child fostering is a temporary arrangement, with parent/s and their child/ren moving into a foster family home for around 6 months. The objectives and the duration of parent and child fostering vary, depending on the parent’s individual circumstances.

The primary goals of parent and child fostering

Preventing separation

If the parent is able to learn and demonstrate the skills required to safely parent, then the child will avoid staying in the care system and the trauma of separation for the child and for the parent is avoided.

Developing parenting skills

The primary focus of parent and child fostering is supporting, guiding and role modelling, to help the parent to gain confidence and develop the skills required to safely and effectively care for their child.

Assessment

The foster parent offers a safe, nurturing environment for the parent and child to learn while assessing if the parent can recognize and meet their child’s needs with support. They collaborate with social workers and other professionals to monitor and evaluate the parent’s progress.

Skill building

Parenting classes, counselling and other forms of external support services may be provided to help the parent to overcome the challenges that they have faced previously and address the causes.

Safety and wellbeing

The safety and wellbeing of the child are always paramount in these arrangements so the parent-child relationship and interaction will need close supervision.

Aiding transition

The foster parent helps transition the child to a new family if the parent can’t or won’t meet the child’s needs. While the goal is for the parent to live independently with the child, alternatives like adoption, long-term foster care, or kinship care may be considered.

Parent and child pay

Parent and child foster parents need to be skilled in caring for children and also able to empathise and offer support and guidance to parents who are struggling. It is a specialised form of foster care requiring additional training which The Hazel Project would provide.

This is a highly specialised role, suited to those with experience in working with vulnerable adults and children as reflected in the fostering fees and allowances.