How to foster
What are the benefits of fostering with an independent fostering agency?
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 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
Fostering Assessment
Fostering Outcomes
Fostering Stories
Fostering Children UK
Children needing Fostering
Reasons for a child to be taken into Care
Fostering as a Career
Looked after Children
Can I foster if...?
Mythbusting the top 10 Foster Care Myths
Can I foster if I am disabled?
LGBT Fostering Mythbusting
Can I foster if I have pets?
Can I Foster A Child?
Can you Foster and Work?
Can you Foster with a Criminal Record
Fostering as a Single Parent
LGBT Family and Foster Care
Fostering across Cultures
Empty Nest Syndrome and Foster Care
10 things you can do when your Children fly the nest
Can I Foster?
Fostering Babies - Myth Busting
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 Service (MATS)
Young Children Fostering Placements
Difference between short and long-term fostering
Children who foster: impact of fostering on birth children
How to prepare your home for a foster child
Tips for coping when foster placements end
How to deal with empty nest syndrome
How to recognise signs of depression in foster children
Can you take a foster child on holiday?
Tips and advice on fostering with a disability
10 tips on connecting with your Foster Child
Fostering versus Adoption - What's the difference?
How Fostering can change a future
How to adopt from Foster Care
How to encourage children to read in Foster Care
How to prepare a Foster Child's bedroom
Online grooming - unwanted contact and how to identify it
Reading and storytelling with Babies and young Children
Supporting Children's Learning
Technology and Internet Safety advice
The 20 most recommended books Foster Carers and young people should read
The impact of early childhood traumas on adolescence and adulthood
Tips for coping with attachment disorders in Foster Children
Tips for supporting reunification in Foster Care
Together for a better Internet - Web Safety for Foster Children
What is sexual abuse and sexual violence
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
Could Millenials be the solution to the Foster Care crisis?
Do you work in Emergency Services?
Form F Assessor
Foster Care Fortnight
Improving Children's Welfare - Celebrating Universal Children's Day
It's time to talk about Mental Health and Foster Care
New Year - New Career - Become a Foster Carer
Promoting the rights and wellbeing of persons with Disabilities
Refugee Week
Young people and Mental Health in a changing world
Young People Charities
Short term placements can include anything from a single night for an emergency placement up to a two-year placement. The child in care will stay with you while their legal care proceedings are finalised, which usually takes around 25-26 weeks. Here, the child’s long-term plans will be confirmed – the decision of whether they can return to their birth family or whether they will move on to a long-term fostering solution is often being made in these circumstances.
Most foster children are likely to start out on a short-term foster care plan, which is also known as temporary fostering. Short term foster care is more common with young children – and is mostly to support the child in care while care proceedings or care hearings are happening to determine the young person’s future.
When long-term foster care is referred to, it’s not purely based on the length of time the child is in care for – it instead refers to the type of care plan the young person is on. Long term foster placements mean the child should remain in a specific fostering placement (in most cases) until reaching adulthood and leaving care.
This type of foster care is also known as permanent fostering – as it provides a more permanent consistency to young people who are unlikely to return to their families. Once reaching adulthood, they are out of the care system and able to care for themselves. For more information on this, read our What Is A Care Leaver? guide.
Whichever type of foster care you choose, it will undoubtedly have a huge impact on a young person’s life – and can be extremely rewarding. However, it is important to acknowledge that either long or short-term fostering will have an impact on your existing family’s life.
By choosing to foster short term, this can often lead to disruption in the family – and lack of consistency from placement to placement. However, foster carers often prefer short term fostering as it leaves them without the commitment to longer term foster care – while still having the ability to change a young person’s future.
Long term foster carers set out to create a permanent home for a young person that will often be in their care for years. There is currently a national shortage for long-term foster carers with most placements being short-term – so long-term fosterers are urged to come forward to help change a young person’s future.
Interested in finding out more about becoming a foster carer? Get in touch with our helpful team – one of our foster care experts will be in touch to provide you with help and advice.
Our team of friendly fostering advisors are on hand to answer any questions you may have. We can offer you honest and practical advice that can help you decide if becoming a foster carer is right for you.
You can contact us by phone and speak to our fostering advisors who are available to talk to you about becoming a foster carer.
You can contact us by completing our online form and our fostering advisors will respond to your queries within 24 hours.
Email Us
You can chat with us online and you can get the answers to your questions immediately.
