Types of foster care

Fostering is giving a caring, safe and loving home to babies, children and young people who are unable to live with their families.

This could be for a few nights, or for some children it can be for months or even years. 

Some children will return to their birth families, others are fostered until they are ready to live independently, and some are adopted. 

Each child comes into foster care for different reasons and has unique needs. That is why there are many types of fostering.

Fostering is an important and responsible role, so foster carers are paid a generous allowance and fee, receive extensive training and continuous support. Find out more about what we offer to foster carers with Brent.

Fostering or Adoption?

Fostering is sometimes confused with adoption. Foster care is temporary and the child is not a permanent member of your family.  If you are interested in adoption, please visit Adopt London West’s website.

This is the most common type of fostering. Your care for a child for one or two days, or for as a long as a few years. Where possible we aim to reunite the child with their family but sometimes we need to move children to a longer-term family environment.

This is where you foster a child until they reach the age of 18 or are ready to live independently. Children placed with long-term foster carers often develop strong bonds with them. Sometimes young people wish to continue living with their foster parents after reaching 18. This is for an agreed period known as a ‘Staying Put’ arrangement.

This is an unplanned type of fostering. You open your home to children at very short notice (less than 24 hours), for a few nights, weeks, months or even few years.

Being a baby foster carer is an incredibly rewarding experience. You will need enough space in your bedroom for a cot and you must live in a smoke free house. You will need to be available 24/7 and have the flexibility to go to meetings, medical appointments and baby-parent contact visits. The assessment process for fostering babies is the same as for other types of fostering. 

Learn more about the experience of fostering babies for Brent Council from one of our baby foster carers, who has been looking after children since 2018.

As a foster carer for older children you will need the energy and time to meet their needs. Older children need to have contact with their birth parents and you will need flexibility to attend meetings. You will need a spare room to look after a child older than three years old. It is not possible for a foster child to share a room with another child.

Fostering teenagers

Like all children, teenagers come with their own challenges. These can require a specific skillset from their foster carer. You will need to provide stability in these critical years and guide them through school and life, and focus on helping them reach their potential.

If you want to know what it is like to foster teenagers, read about Muriam and Waseem’s experience or discover the story of this teenage girl whose life was transformed by her foster family.  

When you foster siblings, you help brothers and sisters stay together during a difficult time in their lives. We try to keep siblings together whenever we can as this helps them cope better with the experience. You will need enough living space and the time to look after two or more children. Your allowance will reflect the number of children in your care.

Also known as a mother and baby placement. You care for a vulnerable parent and their baby or young child. The main aim is to help the parent build their confidence and parenting skills. We will provide specialist training for this type of foster care.

If a child's parents or usual foster parents need to take a break, you can look after the children for a short period of time. A respite placement can last from a couple of days to a few weeks.

Some types of fostering are unique and require a minimum amount of experience or training to be able to do.

Remand fostering

This is when you care for young people who have been remanded by a court. You must have specialist training to be this type of foster parent.

Specialist therapeutic fostering 

A specialised form of care for children and young people with complex needs or particularly challenging behaviour. You can only do this if you have certain skills or have attended specialist training. 

Fostering unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

Asylum-seeking children come from a range of countries affected by conflict. They have fled their homeland after experiencing abuse or being separated from their families. Most have experienced trauma travelling to the UK and may need additional support to overcome this. If you look after asylum seeking children you will receive personalised support and training. 

You are an approved adopter temporarily approved as a foster carer so you can care for a child you may go on to adopt. This is usually for children where the plan is likely to be adoption outside of the family.

This allows a child to be placed with the adoptive parents from an early stage rather than having to move.

Concurrent placements

Similar to fostering for adoption but your approval as an adopter and as a foster carer is not for a specific child. This is suitable for people who accept an element of uncertainty, as the adoption plan for the child is not as clear as with fostering for adoption.