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What is Foster Care?
Sometimes children in Denbighshire cannot live with their parents and need someone else to care for them. This may be because a parent is going into hospital and there are no other family members to look after them; but can also be because the family is having a stressful time and everyone needs breathing space from each other. Sadly, some children are not safe at home and so have to live elsewhere.
If Denbighshire Social Services makes arrangements for the children to live away from their parents, the children are described as being “in care” or “looked after”. In Denbighshire, being “looked after” usually means living with another family in an ordinary family home as part of another family, this is called foster care. Children from all parts of Denbighshire may need foster care. It is usually important to keep children close to their own family, community and school so we need foster carers in towns and villages across the whole county. The period of foster care can vary depending on a whole range of circumstances; some children may only need one night, others may need much more.
To meet these varied needs, we offer different types of foster care. Some people have the space to look after a group of brothers and sisters, some are able to care for newborn babies until an adoptive family is found and others are skilled at working with teenagers or disabled children. Some people can make the commitment of long term fostering, while for others the challenge of emergency and short term placements is more appealing. Some people cannot look after children full time, but can give children a short break from their family or foster carer (“respite care”). No foster carer is expected to do everything!
Fostering applicants get the chance to find out more about different types of foster care by talking with current foster carers and social workers. It is also common for foster carers to change the type of fostering they offer as their personal circumstances change or their skills and confidence increase.
Foster carers are part of a team, working together with the Family Placement Team to give children and families the best possible chances in life. The key players in this process are:
- The Family Placement Team - provides support, supervision and training for the foster carer.
- Child’s social worker - works directly with the child and family and in this role is the team co-ordinator.
- Child’s family - plays a central part in the child’s identity, and is often key to whether the child will be able to return home.
- Child’s foster carer - provides day to day care for the child, promoting the child’s safety, wellbeing, education, health, development and sense of identity.
There may be many other people or agencies working in the team, depending on the individual needs and circumstances of the child. You will learn about them during the application and assessment process.
In foster care, the child is still very much part of his or her original family. Most fostered children still want to see their family, and foster carers need to understand this. Although the foster carer can make day to day decisions, larger decisions (such as which school the child goes to, or giving permission for an operation) can only be made by the child’s parent(s) and/or social services.
If you'd like to find out more about fostering, ring our Free Phone enquiry line on 0800 7313215.
(pdf, 302.63 KB) My little book about fostering - What is it like to be fostered.