Parent & Child Foster Care

All children/ young people deserve a loving, safe home life, and where possible, this should be with their birth parents.

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Parent and child foster care is a way of offering a home to both a young parent and their baby - sometimes this includes both parents. However, usually it is the mother requiring this type of placement, although not always.

Parents may be under the age of 18, and perhaps themselves may have been in care.

Sometimes mothers are placed in foster care while still pregnant, so that the carers can help her prepare for her parenting role.

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These young people will need help and advice, and the carers role will be to teach, support and guide them, so that they can move on to independence.

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If there are significant concerns about their parenting capacity, assessments will be made about their ability to care for their baby, whilst in foster care. Foster carers play an integral role in contributing to these assessments.

This will include keeping a clear record of all relevant issues, and providing this information to the placing authority, and the court.

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Parent and child foster carers are provided with specialist training, and will need to have this category included in their approval at the Fostering Panel.

If you would like to know more about any of the different types of fostering, please  do not hesitate to get in touch.