What types of foster care are there?

There are lots of reasons why children need fostering, and there are lots of different types of fostering:

• Time-limited fostering includes short term stays of anything from overnight to a couple of years. The aim is to support the child while important decisions are made about their future before returning them to their own family or moving them to a permanent new family.
• Emergency fostering may be needed when the Council feels it is essential to take a child away from an unsafe situation, sometimes outside of normal office hours.
• Parent and child foster care gives a parent - or sometimes both parents a safe place to live while assessments of their parenting are carried out. The foster carer generally supports the parent and does not care directly for the baby.
• Foster carer respite is used to support foster placements by giving the child and their regular foster carer a break.
• Short break foster care is sometimes offered to families who are experiencing difficulties or have children with disabilities. These give parents a regular break from caring, while giving the child an opportunity to meet people and do new things.
• Intensive fostering is provided by experienced professional foster carers who can meet the needs of children with particularly complex needs such as extreme challenging behaviours, mental health issues or multiple disabilities.
• Permanent foster care offers long term care and security to older children, often until they reach adulthood. The aim is to treat them as part of your family while recognising their ongoing relationship with their birth family.
• Adoption is different from foster care because it involves a child legally and permanently joining your family so that they are no longer 'in care'. Plymouth City Council is always looking for people who can adopt a child up to around age ten. If you think that adoption might be for you instead of fostering then please visit our adoption pages to find out more.

With so many types of fostering, the Council needs foster carers who can offer full-time or part-time care. If you apply to become a foster carer then your social worker will help you decide what sort of fostering would best suit you and your family.