There are lots of different ways you can foster, some carers foster for a few weeks at a time and others foster full time.
Here’s a summary of some of the different types of foster care:
Short term foster care is when a child or young person comes to live with a foster family for a few weeks to several months. Long term foster care is where a child remains in a foster home until they reach adulthood. It’s likely that they’ll be brought up by one foster family over several years. Parent and child is a specialist foster carer that does regular observation of a parent and child. These carers assess and report on whether they are in tune with their emotional and physical needs, if they’re able to stick to a suitable routine in terms of feeding, naptimes etc. More information of different types of foster care placements can be found here.