What happens when you get an emergency fostering call?
An emergency fostering call gives you a few facts and about twenty minutes to decide. Here is why children need a home at short notice, what you will and will not be told, why saying no is fine, what to do in the hour before they arrive, and what the law requires in the weeks that follow.
Can a young person stay with you after they turn 18?
A young person who was in foster care immediately before their eighteenth birthday can carry on living with you afterwards. It is called Staying Put, and the local authority has a legal duty to support it until they are 21. Here is what actually changes on the birthday, what the money looks like, what the Living Together Agreement covers, whether you can keep fostering at the same time, and how an arrangement ends.
Can you foster a child you might go on to adopt?
Early permanence lets a baby go straight to the family who may adopt them, while a court is still deciding. Here is what the law actually requires, how long the wait really takes, what the latest national figures show about how these arrangements end, and where an independent fostering agency like South Coast fits in.
Can you foster brothers and sisters together?
Fostering siblings sounds simple until you read the law. What the Children Act 1989 actually requires, why 37 per cent of children in care live apart from their brothers and sisters, the three-child fostering limit and its little-known exception, and what South Coast pays for each child.
What is short break fostering?
Short break fostering, sometimes called respite, means the same child staying with you for a night or a weekend at a time, planned well ahead. Here is the 17-day and 75-day rule that defines it in law, what changes about the paperwork, how you are approved and trained, how the pay and tax work for a short stay, and what the role asks of you that full-time fostering does not.
What is it like to foster a baby?
Fostering a baby means the feeds and the broken nights, and also a health review every six months, an immunisation schedule, family time several days a week and a court timetable you do not control. Here is what caring for a baby in foster care really involves, why a spare bedroom is often not the barrier people think, and what happens when the baby moves on.
What is parent and child fostering?
In parent and child fostering, a mother or father moves in alongside their baby and stays for around twelve weeks while the local authority assesses whether they can care for their child on their own. Here is what the role really involves, why the family court is usually behind it, what gets written into the agreement before anyone arrives, and what South Coast pays for it.
The different types of foster care explained
Emergency, short-term, long-term, parent and child, baby, short breaks, enhanced fostering and Staying Put all ask something different of a carer. Here is what each one actually involves day to day, what South Coast pays for it, and a few honest questions to help you work out which one would fit your life.