Diagrama FoundationThere are many different types of foster care. If you are considering becoming a foster carer and making a huge difference in a child’s life, then it’s worth giving some thought to the kind of fostering you would like to do.
Here is some information about different types of foster care to help you with this decision:
Long-term foster care
Long-term foster carers look after children who cannot return to their birth family but are not going to be adopted. A long-term foster parent usually cares for a child until they reach adulthood.
Short-term foster care
Short-term foster carers look after children for weeks or months while decisions are made about their care.
Family and friends/kinship foster care
This is where a child is placed with family members or friends.
Emergency foster care
An emergency foster carer provides a child with a safe place to stay at very short notice, unusually for a few nights.
Respite and short breaks for foster children
Respite foster carers accommodate and care for children while their parents or other carers take a break. These may be children with special educational needs or long-term medical conditions.
Remand fostering
Remand fostering involves caring for young people involved in criminal trials, who have been remanded into foster care by a court.
Fostering for adoption
Fostering for adoption is caring for babies or young children who you may eventually adopt.
Specialist therapeutic foster care
Therapeutic foster care involves providing specialist therapeutic care to children and young people with health conditions, special educational needs or behavioural challenges.
Fostering unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs)
UASCs need specialist foster carers, who can cope with language barriers, help to navigate complex legal and immigration procedures and offer support to young people who may be deeply traumatised.
Parent and child foster care placements
These placements involve a child and their parent. They both need support to safeguard the child and enable the parent to care for them.
Find out more about becoming a foster carer
At Diagrama Fostering we are a not-for-profit agency offering a wide range of fostering opportunities. Click here for more information about fostering with Diagrama, or simply book a 30-minute chat with one of our friendly social workers. Speak to our team and find out how you can become a foster carer with Diagrama and become a role model to a vulnerable child in need.
Alternatively you can download our booklet. Our booklet contains everything you need to know about making a difference to a child’s life through fostering.
