At Excel Fostering, we facilitate a variety of foster care placements and arrangements. Read on to explore the different types of foster care.
There are many types of foster care available to children, young adults and carers. Designed to accommodate each foster child’s unique needs and circumstances, our arrangements range from short-term breaks to providing long-term, loving homes. At Excel Fostering, we also offer specialist placements for children with additional needs. Subject to additional training, these specialist arrangements are some of our most rewarding and highly compensated foster placements. Want to find out which fostering arrangement is the best fit for you? Discover our different types of foster care.
The following list features the different types of foster care offered by Excel Fostering. Each fostering arrangement comes with a bespoke training programme and 24/7 support for our carers.
Short term fostering offers children a safe environment on a short term, temporary basis. These placements can last from as little as a few days up to two years, depending on the child’s unique needs and circumstances.
Short term fostering arrangements are primarily designed for children in care who are either awaiting a long-term solution (like adoption) or waiting to return to their family home.
Learn more about Short Term Foster Care.
Long term foster placements offer children and young people and safe, stable home environment until they reach adulthood and leave the foster care system. An incredibly rewarding fostering arrangement, long term placements allow foster children to become fully integrated members of their foster family, whilst still maintaining contact with their parents, where appropriate.
Long term fostering arrangements are usually offered when a foster child is:
a) unable to return to their family home
and
b) adoption is not a viable option
Learn more about Long Term Foster Care.
Parent and child fostering involves providing a safe environment for parent(s) and their young child. This allows families to stay together whilst receiving full time support from a foster carer to assure the wellbeing of the baby.
Unlike other types of foster care, parent and child fostering is designed to encourage, support and supervise the parents as they develop the necessary skills to become well-rounded, self-sufficient parents whilst their dedicated social worker determines whether they’re ready to return home with their child without additional supervision.
Learn more about Parent and Child Foster Care.
Therapeutic foster care is a specialist type of foster care designed to provide children and young people with an additional level of emotional, psychological and social support as part of their standard foster care arrangement. Due to the complexity of these fostering arrangements, our team at Excel have developed a unique service called MATTS to cater to children and young people at the point of need. Standing for Multi-disciplinary Assessment Treatment & Therapy Service, our team have internal therapeutic leads in each region to ensure all our foster families are receiving the specialist support they need. Our carers also have access to external therapeutic resources and 24/7 support from our internal team to aid them whilst supporting the child in their care.
Therapeutic fostering is usually reserved for children and young people who may have dealt with trauma, abuse or any other kind of severe disruption prior to being placed into foster care. As such, it is one of the more challenging yet highly rewarding types of foster care.
Learn more about Therapeutic Foster Care.
Previously known as respite fostering, planned breaks are short term placements designed to provide children with new experiences away from their family or foster home, whilst also offering parents and carers an opportunity to take a break.
This type of fostering arrangement is predominantly available to foster parents whose child has a disability or behavioural issues and those who have important commitments that would temporarily impact their care duties.
Learn more about Respite Foster Care.
Remand fostering is a type of foster placement that provides young people remanded by the courts with an opportunity to live with a foster carer. Preventing young people from living in custodial care, remand foster arrangements offer a safe, supportive foster home for young people while they await their court proceedings.
Learn more about Remand Foster Care.
Emergency foster placements often occur with very little warning as a result of unforeseen circumstances. Designed to accommodate children who need an immediate short term foster home, these placements are often extremely temporary, only lasting until other plans are made for the child’s care arrangements.
However, these types of foster placements can develop into a long-term foster care role if that is the best solution for the child and foster carer.
Learn more about Emergency Foster Care.
With so many different types of fostering available, there are countless ways you can change a child’s life for the better. If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer with Excel Fostering, contact us on 01253 712734 or fill out the form below.
If you’ve got any questions or would like to find out more about fostering with Excel Fostering, fill out the form below.
An experienced fostering advisor from your local area will then be in touch.
Start the conversation today. Our team of friendly advisors are on hand to answer any foster care questions you may have. We can offer you honest and practical advice that can help you decide if becoming a foster carer is the right path for you.
