Short Term Fostering

What is short-term foster care?

Also known as temporary foster care, short term foster placements provide a child or young person with a safe environment until they can return to the family home and their birth parents. Alternatively, if this isn’t possible, foster parents will provide short-term foster care until full-time adoptive parents – or a more long-term arrangement – can be found. Short-term fostering is usually the most common type of foster care.

Types of Short-Term Fostering Placements

Short-term foster care placements can occur for a variety of reasons, such as abuse of the child, neglect or abandonment. This means that the temporary fostering placement will be able to cover multiple different situations, including:

• Caring for a child while more long-term or permanent solutions – such as adoption – are finalised.
• As part of a remand fostering placement where a child or young person undergoes court proceedings.
• To remove the child from a neglectful family situation, poor home conditions or a situation where a parent is temporarily unable to look after them due to health reasons.
• Helping a child rebuild a broken relationship with their birth family, with the intention of reunification.
• Supporting a child through a difficult transitional period of their lives.

How long is a temporary foster care placement?

Our short-term foster placements can last anywhere from a few days or a few weeks, to several months, which differes greatly from long term fostering placements. Short-term foster parents may be required to take on a child with very little notice as part of an emergency foster placement, so it’s important they are able to respond to urgent requirements at short notice. Throughout these short term placements, every effort is made to ensure that the children or young people in care can continue their lives normally – including attending school and seeing their friends and family if possible.

Temporary Foster Care with Excel

Throughout your short-term fostering work with Excel, you’ll be supported by a supervising social worker who will help guide you in the care of your placement. You will also work closely with local authorities to make a long-term plan for the child’s future.

By working with Excel Fostering offering short-term services, you’ll be helping support children and young people through a difficult part of their lives, as well as helping them plan for their future – whether that future includes a return to their birth parents or not. Along with the rewarding experience of caring for a foster child or foster children, you’ll also have the opportunity to help rebuild familial bonds and bring families closer together.

Short-term fostering placements are just one of the many types of fostering available. Find out more information on other types of foster care with Excel Fostering.
As an independent fostering agency, we work with local authorities to provide high-quality care services to young people in need. If you’re over 21 years of age, in good health, have a spare room in your home and are interested in starting your fostering career, then we would love to hear from you. Learn more about the fostering requirements of being a short-term foster carer now.

After completing the assessment process and becoming a registered carer with Excel, you’ll receive a competitive weekly fostering allowance as well as important fostering skills training to help provide the best service possible.

Make a difference, change a life and start a new career today in temporary foster care by contacting the Excel Fostering office. Whether you’re looking for more information on short-term fostering, or want to apply, our team would love to hear from you.