What is fostering?
Fostering is a special service set up to find homes for children and young people who are unable to live with their parents. Children might stay with a foster carer for just one night, a few weeks, or many years until adulthood and beyond.
Every year thousands of children need to be looked after by foster carers because their families are not able to take care of them for a variety of reasons.
The best place for a child who can’t live with their own family is to be placed with another family who can give them lots of time, attention, and support.
Foster carers get training, support, and an allowance to cover the cost of caring for the child or children that has been placed with them. You also get a fee for fostering to reward your skills.
Many children who are fostered will be reunited with their parents, but some may be placed with other relatives or a long term foster carer, or adopted.
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You can also read about some of our current foster carers and why they chose fostering.
Fostering and adoption: what’s the difference?
The key difference between adoption and fostering is a legal one. An adoption order ends the child's legal relationship with their birth family, whereas children living in foster care remain the legal responsibility of their Local Authority and their birth parents.
Foster carers and foster families also maintain an active engagement with their fostering agency and the local authority or council. In Adoption, these relationships tend to end or be distant or if needed.
If you foster a child you’re responsible for the wellbeing day to day, but the council and/or their parents are still the ones legally responsible for their welfare and will make most of the big decisions about their care. However, if a child is given a long term fostering status, this changes and foster parents are given delegated authority to make decision about the child.
Find out more about adoption at Adoption UK