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The role of an independent fostering agency
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How to choose a foster care agency
Foster Care Fortnight: How to raise awareness about children in foster care
Can I choose who I foster?
How to foster
What are the benefits of fostering with an independent fostering agency?
What happens when a child is taken into care?
Fostering process: what happens on an initial home visit?
Can you foster if you have mental health issues?
Fostering with local authority vs independent agency
Interview: Life as a foster parent during the pandemic
A complete guide to becoming a foster carer
How Are Children in Foster Care Matched with Carers?
Foster Care Budgeting Tips
Becoming A Foster Carer
Benefits of becoming a foster parent
What is a Care Leaver?
What is a Foster Carer?
What is Foster Care?
Do I become a Foster Carer?
Fostering Regulations
How much do Foster Parents get paid?
How to Foster a Child
How long does it take to become a Foster Carer?
How to foster – everything you ever wanted to know
Facts about Foster Care
What are the Foster Care requirements?
Foster Care Handbook
Foster Carer Job Description
Changing IFA - Transferring to Capstone
Fostering Definition
Foster Care Statistics
What does Every Child Matters Mean for Foster Parents?
Fostering Stories
Fostering Children UK
Children needing Fostering
8 reasons why a child may be taken into care
Fostering as a Career
Looked after Children
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A guide to fostering assessments
LGBTQ+ Fostering
Equality, Inclusion & Anti-discriminatory Practice in Foster Care
What can disqualify you from foster care?
Can you foster if you’re on benefits?
Top transferable job skills to become a foster carer
Fostering as a same sex couple
Fostering while renting
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How to foster a child: A step by step guide
How do DBS Checks Work?
Can I foster if...?
Mythbusting the top 10 Foster Care Myths
Can I foster if I am disabled?
LGBT Fostering Mythbusting
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Can I Foster A Child?
Can I Foster and Work?
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LGBT Family and Foster Care
Fostering across Cultures
Muslim Fostering
Christian Foster Care
Sikh Fostering
Empty Nest Syndrome and Foster Care
Can I Foster?
Fostering Babies and Young Children
Fostering Babies - Myths
Focusing on Parent & Child Fostering
Fostering Siblings
Fostering Teenagers
Fostering Teenagers - Breaking down the Myths
Fostering Unaccompanied and Asylum Seeking Children
Mother and Baby Foster Placements
Private Fostering
Therapeutic Fostering - Multi-disciplinary Assessment Treatment & Therapy Service (MATTS)
Young Children Fostering Placements
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Reunification and Birth Parents: A Guide for Foster Carers
What is an EHC Plan? A Guide for Foster Carers
How to prepare a child for becoming a care leaver
Children who foster: impact of fostering on birth children
Fostering LGBTQ+ Youth
How to prepare your home for a foster child
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10 tips for foster children's education
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Tips for foster parents during Coronavirus
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A Guide to the Staying Put Program
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Reading and Storytelling with Babies and Young Children
Supporting Children's Learning
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Anxious Disorders in Foster Children
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Foster Child behaviour management strategies
Foster Parent Advice: What to expect in your first year of fostering
Capstone's twelve tips at Christmas
10 celebrities who grew up in Foster Care
Celebrating our Children and Young People
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Do you work in Emergency Services?
Form F Assessor and Assessment Training
Foster Care Fortnight
Improving Children's Welfare - Celebrating Universal Children's Day
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Promoting the rights and wellbeing of persons with Disabilities
Refugee Week
Young people and Mental Health in a changing world
Young People Charities
In nearly all fostering placements, foster children will have contact with their birth parents. By having regular contact, this provides children and young people with an ongoing sense of identity, as well as feelings of stability and security. However, as a foster parent, this can often pose challenges.
Our guide helps foster parents to support the relationships between foster children and their birth family, as well as tips on how to protect yourself, too.
One of the most important ways to support a foster child’s contact with their birth family is by speaking positively about them. There may have been circumstances that have led to your foster child being placed in the care system which you don’t agree with – however, as a foster parent, it’s your job to protect the child in your care from these events and focus on the positives.
This will help to strengthen the bond between the child or young person and their family, and it could help to work towards reunification, if this is the goal.
Make a conscious effort to learn about your foster child’s family. What are their interests? What is the family tree – who is a cousin, who is an uncle, etc? What type of music do they like? By knowing some of these things, not only will this allow you more opportunities for conversation topics at scheduled meetings, but you can relate to your foster child more, too.
For example, if their birth parents enjoy musicals, it’s likely your foster child has been exposed to musicals, or songs from musicals before, so playing musical soundtracks could be a good way to connect with them and bond.
It’s common for foster children to exhibit behaviour changes after visits with their birth parents. Not only can these visits leave them with feelings of disappointment, sadness or loss, but they can also provoke feelings of anger and confusion as to why they are separated.
It’s important that these behaviour changes are reported to social workers and are managed carefully. The child's feelings following birth family visits should always be validated whilst supporting ways to appropriately express these feelings.
Opening up the lines of communication before visits is important, so the foster child can address their wishes and feelings beforehand. A good piece of advice is to not assume you know what your foster child is feeling – and be aware that their emotions may change over time.
However, preparing for visits will differ for each child – for example, they may find value in knowing the date of the meeting in advance so they can prepare, but they could also become anxious about this if they know too far in advance.
In many fostering placements, the end goal is reunification. This refers to when the foster child is placed back into the care of the birth parents, family or guardians, and is typically more common in emergency placements or short-term placements. For both the foster child and the foster parent, reunification can present mixed emotions. Your foster child may have reservations about being reunited with their birth parents, and you may find it difficult to say goodbye.
Our guide on tips to support reunification in foster care provides detailed advice for how to cope with reunification.
Although there is a large number of birth parents who would feel gratitude and respect towards foster parents for looking after their children, there could also be birth families who experience difficulties which may manifest in resentment and jealousy.
As a foster parent, you’re trained to understand how to manage these interactions, and ensure that these are not reflected onto the foster child. They need to view both their foster family and their birth family on the same team with no division, and by seeing any hostility could result in them feeling compelled to choose a side.
As part of the 1989 Children Act, this requires local authorities and, in turn, independent foster agencies, to support and promote contact with birth families, unless it is not in the best interest of the child. Birth parents benefit from the reassurance that their child is being taken care of, so maintaining contact throughout the foster placement allows them to continue and develop their relationship.
However, the amount of interaction birth families will have with their child in foster care will vary case by case. For younger children, the level of contact may be higher to maintain the attachment relationship, whereas a teenager may require less contact. This will be decided based on recommendations from the local authority and social workers. The reasons the child is taken into care initially will need to be considered closely to determine the level of contact.
For more information about how to support foster care contact with birth families, our team of experts is always on hand to help. Get in touch with us today.
If you’ve got any questions or would like to find out more about fostering with Capstone, 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.
