Foster care is when a child can no longer live with their own family, so is placed into the care of foster carers.
Foster carers are approved and trained to look after children and young people who find themselves in this situation.
Foster care offers children a safe and caring home when their biological families cannot take care of them, which is usually geographically close to their family home. The role of a foster carer is to provide a safe, secure environment for the foster child on either a temporary or more permanent basis. As well as offering nurturing, kindness, and constructive boundaries to support the child’s or young persons emotional and mental wellbeing.
The main difference between fostering and adoption is that when adopting a child, the adopted parents take full legal responsibility of the child as adoption is a permanent solution. However, the role of a foster carer is usually on more of a temporary basis – and the local authority and child’s birth parents still have legal responsibility for the child. For more information, read our Fostering Vs Adoption guide – which provides a detailed explanation of the difference between the two.
Foster carers are registered with either an approved independent fostering agency, like us here at Capstone Foster Care, or by a local authority. Most local authorities in England have their own foster carers, but over the last ten years, increasingly more foster children are looked after by carers registered with fostering agencies. This year, nearly half of all new foster placements will be made with fostering agencies.
Most new carers choose to join private independent agencies like us, rather than a local authority – this is often due to the extensive fostering training and extra support that’s provided. By choosing an independent fostering agency, you will receive 24-hour support any day of the year from our friendly and expert team.
Learn more about the benefits of fostering with an independent fostering agency or call the team today on 0800 012 4004 for more information.
Or learn more about why people choose to foster…
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.
