Care . Support . Guidance

What is fostering?

Fostering is the term used to describe the arrangement whereby a child cannot live with their own birth family and therefore are cared for by another family (known as a foster family). Foster Parents are people who are warm, caring, supportive and understanding. They offer safe and nurturing homes to children to help them to achieve and develop. 

When it is determined by a Local Authority that a child needs a foster home, they create a referral which gives details about the child. This referral is then sent to local fostering services who may be able to help. There are many reasons why children cannot live with their birth families.

Foster Parents are there to offer safe, loving and stable homes to children whilst they cannot live with their families. Sometimes foster parents offer homes for just a short period of time whilst work is completed with the birth family to enable the child to return home, or sometimes children may be placed into care for the remainder of their childhood. Either way, the foster parents we recruit need to be people who are caring, understanding, committed and empathetic. We strive to recruit and train people to become foster parents who learn to parent therapeutically. This type of parenting helps children to recover from their traumatic experiences. 

As a TheraParent Foster Parent, you will be allocated a Supervising Social Worker who will be someone who is highly qualified and experienced. They are there to support you, to ensure you are doing everything you should do as a foster parent, to attend meetings with you and to help identify training needs. Your Supervising Social Worker will meet with you at least once per month to check how things are going, but they are always available on the telephone/email whenever you need support.

As a TheraParent Fostering Foster Parent, you receive full training free of charge. Our training program includes mandatory training and developmental training to enable you to offer the best possible support to the child(ren) in your care. 

Fostering is a paid role. As a foster parent, you become a vital member of the professional team around the child. For more information about our fees, call us to book an informal home visit where we will be happy to provide you with further information.