Short-term foster care is what we’ve found to be the most common type of foster care. It’s used when a child or young person needs to be found care until they can be returned to their family, be placed under permanent foster care or found adoptive parents.
There could be several reasons why short-term foster care is popular, like its suitability to people with busy schedules, or others who want to try fostering on a short-term basis before seeing if they would like to do it long-term.
With that said, there’s a need for all types of fostering, including long-term foster care and parent & child foster care. If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent, get in touch with us to start your application. After the phone call, we’ll follow up with a home visit and then an application form, before starting the assessment process.

Choosing the most suitable type of foster care for you is an important decision. Ultimately, the type of fostering that is best for you depends on your situation and requirements. For example, you might hold a full-time job and have other responsibilities like raising a family of your own. In this case, short-term foster care might be best for you.

To help you make a decision, we’re happy to have a chat and discuss your circumstances. We can then help you come to a fostering commitment that revolves around your needs.

If you’re interested in seeing what other types of foster care may be available, visit our Types of Foster Care page. There you’ll find more information about each of the types of foster care, like emergency foster care and long-term foster care. Giving you details on what they each entail, you might even be able to decide yourself which type of foster care is best for you.

The types of fostering in the UK are many and varied. There are numerous reasons for children needing a foster parent; some are urgent and some can be planned for. All children have different requirements, meaning that there are different types of foster care.
Examples include emergency, short term fostering, bridging to adoption, mother and baby and respite care.

To become a foster carer and embark on a truly rewarding and fulfilling experience, you can start by completing an enquiry form. After receiving an information pack and a callback, you’ll embark on the application process, which involves a home visit and an assessment. To find out more about the process of becoming a foster carer, you can contact us or visit our becoming a foster carer page.

Both foster care and adoption involve helping vulnerable children and young people who have experienced less fortunate upbringings and circumstances. However, the key difference between the two is in the legalities.

While foster parents have a duty of care, the legal responsibility ultimately rests with the children’s Local Authority and their birth parents.

When a child is adopted, the child’s legal relationship with their family is ended, and the sole responsibility now rests with the adoptive parent or parents.

Another key difference between them is the flexibility of fostering, where adoption is permanent. With fostering, you can choose to participate in long-term, short-term, or even respite care, where you provide temporary foster care while the child’s main caregivers take some time out for themselves.

Like any occupation, there are many challenges involved with foster care. One of the most significant challenges that foster carers face is dealing with the emotional and behavioural issues that foster children exhibit due to their traumatic experiences. Of course, there are other challenges too that are equally significant:

Adapting to a new experience

Embarking on your fostering journey for the first time can be a nervous but exciting experience. Even if it’s not your first time fostering. Each foster child has their own unique personality and idiosyncrasies, and so it can be challenging as you learn to adjust to them and their way of doing things. You may have to change your approach from what you’re used to with your own birth children (if you have them), or foster children you’ve cared for in the past.
However, once you understand each other, it opens up a whole new experience and one you’ll cherish

Managing relationships

Foster children are often in foster care because of their circumstances and experiences involving their birth families. They may have especially negative experiences that they associate with their birth families, like feeling neglected or abused. For this reason, they may not want to see their biological family, which can make arranged visits difficult, not to mention navigating the relationship in general.
Alternatively, your foster child could be excited to see their birth family but be constantly let down every time a visit or a phone call is arranged. As a result, their feelings of disappointment may be another dynamic you may have to deal with, and it could affect your own well-being, too.

Managing challenging behaviour

Managing challenging behaviour in foster children is common for foster carers to face. Challenging behaviour in foster children can manifest in various ways, such as tantrums, sulking, physical aggression (hitting or kicking), verbal abuse, destructive actions like throwing or breaking objects, and even self-harm.
However, understanding the underlying causes can make it easier to address these issues effectively. The root causes of challenging behaviour in foster children often include one or a combination of the following:

Emotional dysregulation
Traumatic experiences like abuse
Stress and anxiety issues
Sleep deprivation
Attachment issues

Assisting and encouraging education

Some foster children may struggle in an educational setting. This could be for a variety of reasons like low confidence, bullying, resistance to authority, anxiety and stress-related issues, depression, lack of prior encouragement or being exposed to a more structured and stable educational environment.
Any one or a combination of these can lead to poor academic performance. Consequentially, one of the challenges you may face as a foster parent is assisting and supporting your foster child educationally. One way you can do this is by fostering a positive learning environment. Another way is to engage them with strategies that encourage them to complete their schoolwork or establish a home education routine.

Other significant challenges

Other significant challenges foster parents can face include:

Reuniting your foster children – Some foster children go back to their birth families after being in your care. This can be an emotionally challenging time for foster parents as even the strongest of bonds can form in the shortest of time, like in short-term foster care.
Navigating legal issues – Legal issues like confidentiality can be challenging to navigate. To know this topic and how you can overcome the complexities, have a read of our blog on Confidentiality in foster care.
Integrating them into your existing family – You may already have a family of your own, and integrating a foster child into your family and balancing the dynamics can be a challenge.

Support for all foster care challenges

Whatever the challenge, we offer plenty of support to our foster carers:
24-hour telephone support
A monthly visit and weekly telephone call
A fostering allowance that covers the finances involved with foster care
Support groups
Membership of The Fostering Network
Legal protection insurance
Regular foster carer’s news and information

To further help with the challenges involved, we also give our foster carers one-to-one support from the moment you contact us through your local National Fostering Group agency. We also offer even more support through a supportive network and team that involves supervising social workers and regional managers.

We believe that always being on hand to guide you through any challenges you may face as a foster parent, allows you to fully encounter the rewarding and fulfilling experience that fostering is. You’ll truly make a difference to a child or young person’s life, and them to yours too. Want to know more? Get in touch with us today and we can guide you through our application process.