Fostering

Fostering is about caring for a child in your own home. For a whole variety of reasons there are around 39,000 children (in England) who are placed with foster carers by Social Services. Many of these children will eventually return to their families. In some cases this may take a matter of days or weeks in others it may take much longer.

If a return to their families is not possible a decision may be made to find them a permanent new family, possible through adoption.

In the vast majority of cases children in foster care will have regular contact with their families and their parents will continue to have responsibilities towards them throughout the time they are in foster care.

Find out more about fostering