Fostering & Continuing Care

What is Fostering & Continuing Care?

Fostering is a carer offering a children or young people a safe, loving and nurturing home when they cannot live with their birth families. 

Continuing Care enables a young person to remain with their fostering family after the age of 18.

Types of fostering

Emergency

Foster carers need to be prepared to take a child into their home at any time of the night or day and have them stay for a few days. This type of fostering is unplanned and used at short notice, for example, if a lone parent is taken into hospital and there is no one to care for their child.  

Short Breaks

A foster carer cares for a young person for a short period of time, for example during school holidays or at weekends. This can often be the same young person at regular intervals.

Interim

This type of foster care is also known as short term and the young person would stay for a period of less than 24 months as it is not secured by a permanence order.

Long term

Sometimes a young person will not be able to go back to live with their own families for a number of years, if at all. Long-term fostering allows children and young people to stay in a family where they can feel secure, often while maintaining contact with their birth family. In Scotland, long-term fostering specifically refers to a period of longer than 24 months not secured by a permanence order.

Permanent

This term is specific to Scotland and refers to a placement of any length secured by a permanence order. A permanence order removes the child or young person from the children’s hearing system and can last until the child reaches the age of 18. 

Change a young person's life, foster with us.

Complete our application form and one of the team will be in touch.

Got any questions about fostering?

If you have any questions about host families and separated children please get in touch and we’d be happy to discuss.

Explore other fostering pages

Fostering FAQs

Fostering & Continuing Care

Types of fostering