If you’ve decided to step up and open your home up to children in need, then you’ve most likely got plenty of questions swirling around your brain. Throughout this article, we’ll help you get to grips with the different types of foster care, which all exist to fulfil a diverse mix of needs.
Short-Term Fostering
The most common type of fostering is short-term, which covers a matter of weeks, months, or years. All foster child care plans start as short-term because the aim is to reunite foster children with their families as soon as possible. However, this isn’t always a smooth process, which may call for a change of plan and a transition to long-term fostering.
Long-Term Fostering
If a short-term arrangement isn’t enough to facilitate a return to family members, then the care plan will be moved to long term fostering, which often involves taking care of children for many years including up to adulthood. While this type of fostering is longer than short-term, it gets its name from the stability and permanence it provides to each child.
Foster Care for Adoption
If a child’s home life is far too volatile, local authorities may deem it unsafe for foster children to ever return. In these circumstances, children are placed into the care of 100% approved and vetted adopters. To prevent any roadblocks, parental permission for adoption is often already acquired by the local authority. By having the chance to permanently join a stable and loving family, some foster children have the best chance of a happy and successful life.
Remand Fostering
There are some cases where foster care is court-ordered, which is referred to as “remand fostering”. The duration of a remand foster order is typically short, and youth-offending managers are typically involved. When a court orders foster care, it’s often in place of being sent to a juvenile detention facility.
At the time of writing, remand fostering isn’t used in Scotland.
Emergency Fostering
The life of a parent isn’t always straightforward, and unforeseen circumstances can leave people with no choice but to surrender their children to foster care. There are so many reasons why children are placed into emergency care including medical conditions, the untimely death of a parent, and safeguarding issues.
Life never stops causing catastrophic emergencies, which means there’s always a need for foster carers willing to welcome children in need regardless of the time.
Care for Short-Breaks
When parents have children with special educational needs, it can put extra stress alongside the typical woes of being a parent. Depending on the circumstances, some parents need to have regular breaks to recharge their batteries, which is what “short-breaks” fostering facilitates. In this type of foster care, children are often placed with the same foster carer, which allows a strong bond to be built up over time.
There are countless reasons why children are placed into foster care, meaning there are so many different types of care provisions out there. Before becoming a foster carer, make sure you familiarise yourself with the above and decide which will suit your lifestyle.
