What is parent and child fostering?

Most people who ring us picture a child arriving with a bag and a social worker. Parent and child fostering looks different. A mother or a father moves in too, usually with a baby, and the two of them stay together in your home while the parent is given a proper chance to show what they can do. It is one of the most useful things a foster carer in Southern England can offer, and one of the least understood.

What parent and child fostering actually is

CoramBAAF, the leading UK body for fostering and adoption practice, describes it as adults with their children living with foster carers, usually in the context of care proceedings. In plain terms, a parent comes to live with you for a defined period, most often a young mother with a new baby. You do not take over. The parent keeps doing the feeds, the nappies, the two in the morning wakings and the appointments. Your role is to be alongside them, showing them how, steadying them when it goes wrong, and writing down honestly how it went.

You will see it advertised as a parent and child placement, though most carers end up calling it an arrangement, which is closer to what it feels like from inside the house.

It usually runs for around twelve weeks, though it can be longer if the court or the local authority asks for more time. Across those three months the parent is assessed by local authority social workers, who will visit weekly or fortnightly, sometimes to talk and sometimes to watch. The point of that length of time is fairness. Anybody can have one good week. Three months shows whether things are genuinely improving.

Who comes to stay

There is no single sort of person who ends up in a parent and child home. Over the years the parents have included:

• a very young mother, sometimes a teenager who was in care herself and became pregnant while she was
• a parent with a learning disability, a physical disability or mental ill health, who is struggling to cope on their own
• a parent who has left an unsafe home, or people who posed a risk to them and their child
• a parent whose older children came into care, and who is being given a serious chance with this one
• a parent nobody is worried about in particular, who simply has no family and no support around them

The legal position varies too. Sometimes both the parent and the child are in the local authority’s care. Sometimes only the child is. Occasionally only the parent is, if the parent is under eighteen. Sometimes neither of them is. That decides who holds a plan, who has authority to make decisions and who signs what, and your supervising social worker will go through it with you before anyone arrives.

Why the courts are usually involved

Most of these arrangements sit inside family court proceedings. Under section 38(6) of the Children Act 1989, when a court makes an interim care order it can give directions about “the medical or psychiatric examination or other assessment of the child”. A parent and child arrangement is often how that assessment happens, in a real house rather than a clinic.

The clock matters. Since section 14 of the Children and Families Act 2014 amended section 32 of the Children Act 1989, care cases are meant to be concluded within twenty six weeks of the application being issued, and any extension the judge grants can last no more than eight weeks at a time. That is not long to decide whether a family stays together.

The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory found that 5,354 babies were subject to care proceedings in England in 2022/23, and that more than half of them were newborns, under two weeks old when the case began. Decisions about the very youngest children are made quickly, and often before a parent has had any settled chance to show what they can manage. A parent and child home is frequently what buys them that chance.

Wearing two hats at once

This is the part carers find hardest, and it is worth being straight about it. You are supporting somebody and assessing them in the same kitchen, on the same day.

The supporting half is practical and warm. A good rhythm is to show the parent a skill, talk it through together, do it together, let them try it with you nearby, then let them do it alone where the agreement allows. You might be helping a new mother rest and recover, teaching bottle sterilising, encouraging tummy time, explaining why a baby is crying when the parent has read it as rejection, or sitting with someone at eleven at night who is frightened they are getting it all wrong.

The recording half is where the discipline comes in. Your notes may be read by social workers, by the parent’s solicitor and by a judge. They typically cover daily routines, health and any changes in it, appointments and what came of them, developmental milestones and how the parent helped with them, the warmth between parent and child, the parent’s ability to keep their child safe, incidents and accidents, times the parent asked for help, times they managed on their own, and how family time went before and after. Fact, not opinion. “Alice did not settle the baby for forty minutes and asked me to take over” is a record. “Alice cannot cope” is a verdict, and it is not yours to give.

What gets agreed before anyone moves in

Every parent and child arrangement starts with a written agreement covering the practicalities. Getting it clear at the start prevents most of the trouble later. It will usually set out:

• where the child sleeps, and who is responsible during the night
• whether the parent can be alone with their child, and if so when, where and for how long
• whether you are expected to look after the child so the parent can work, study or go out
• arrangements for family time with relatives, and any limits on it
• what you should be watching for, how often you write it up and who you send it to
• who pays for what, from nappies and formula to the parent’s own food and phone
• who is allowed to give the child medicine
• what would bring the arrangement to an end

Read it properly and ask about anything vague. If you are unsure whether you are allowed to leave the house for an hour, that is a question for the planning meeting, not for a Sunday afternoon.

The honest part

Parents arriving in your home have usually not chosen to be there. Some feel watched, and they are. Some will ask you to leave things out of your notes. A few will decide the restrictions are not worth it and go back to the life they came from. Carers who do this well tend to say the same few things: meet the parent before they move in if you possibly can, be open from day one about exactly what you have to record, and make clear that you are submitting observations rather than passing a sentence. Most parents can live with being written about. Very few can live with being written about secretly.

You will also feel the pull to step in and do it yourself, particularly at three in the morning. Resisting that is part of the job, because a parent who is never allowed to struggle is a parent nobody can assess.

What you need to do it

The basic requirements are the same as any other kind of fostering, including the full Form F assessment. If you would like the wider picture first, our guide to becoming a foster carer walks through the process. On top of that, a fostering panel will want to see that you can hold consistent boundaries with adults as well as children, that you communicate and negotiate well, that you understand safeguarding in a house where another adult lives, that you can keep clear records and separate fact from opinion, that you know something about child development and attachment, and that you are comfortable having a grown up in your home who may well challenge you.

You need the room, too. The parent and their child need their own bedroom, so this is one type of fostering where a spare room is genuinely needed rather than helpful. Once you are approved, you get training specific to parent and child work before anyone is matched with you.

What it pays

South Coast Fostering pays £987 a week for a parent and child arrangement, and we say plainly on our fostering money page that a deduction may apply if the parent receives benefits in their own right. For comparison, our weekly fee for a child aged ten and under is £479.50, and £507.50 for a child of eleven and over.

The higher rate reflects the fact that this is skilled work with two people in your home, more recording, more meetings and often a court date. Like all foster carers you are treated as self employed, and Qualifying Care Relief means most carers pay little or no tax on their fostering income. Our article on how foster carer pay works in Southern England goes through the figures in more detail.

Please note: the tax and legal points here are general information for 2026, not personal advice. Check your own position with HMRC, a qualified adviser or your fostering service. Court practice varies case by case.

You won’t have to do this alone

Nobody is handed a parent and child arrangement and left to it. You will have a supervising social worker who knows you and knows the case, training built for this kind of fostering, and a phone line staffed around the clock for the evenings when something happens and you need a steady voice. If the case reaches a final hearing we will prepare you for it, go through your records with you and make sure you know what to expect from the day. Our support page sets out what carers get from us.

There is a reason we keep doing this work. A parent and child arrangement is sometimes the only route by which a family stays a family. When it does not work out, the child has still spent those months somewhere warm and safe with an adult who was paying attention. A child isn’t just given a home, they’re given a chance.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a parent and child arrangement last?

Usually around twelve weeks, sometimes longer. The court timetable often sets the pace, since care cases are meant to conclude within twenty six weeks, with any extension limited to eight weeks at a time.

Will I have to go to court?

You might. Your written records can be used as evidence, and you may be asked to attend as a witness or to support the parent. You will not be sent in cold. Your supervising social worker will prepare you, and many carers find it far less daunting than they expected.

Does the parent look after their own child, or do I?

The parent does. They keep day to day care of their child, and your part is to support them and to record how it goes. The written agreement sets out any times when that changes, for example if the parent is not allowed to be alone with the child overnight.

Do I need a spare bedroom for parent and child fostering?

Yes. The parent and their child need a room of their own, which is different from some other types of fostering where a baby under two can sleep in a cot in the carer’s room. Our article on whether you need a spare bedroom to foster explains the rules.

Can I work and be a parent and child foster carer?

Sometimes, but it is harder than with other kinds of fostering. The role needs somebody at home for most of the day, particularly in the early weeks. It is worth raising at your first conversation with us rather than later.