Types of foster care

Emergency foster carers will 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 usually at short notice because of an unanticipated situation.

This can mean anything from an overnight stay to a period of several months. Usually when a child or young person comes to live with foster carers on a short-term basis, it is not known exactly how long that child will need fostering - it will be until the child can return home or another permanent place for them to live is agreed.

In Scotland, this type of fostering is called interim fostering and refers specifically to a placement of less than 24 months not secured by a permanence order.

This term is used specifically in Scotland and refers to a placement of any length secured by a permanence order. A permanence order removes the child from the children’s hearing system and can last until the child reaches the age of 18. It transfers the parental right to have the child living with the parent and to control where the child lives to the local authority. 

Also known as 'shared care' or ‘respite care’, this covers a variety of different types of part-time care. Short break carers might have a child to stay for anything from a few hours each week to a couple of weekends each month, giving their own family or full-time foster carers a break. 

There are a growing number of schemes which help to prevent children or young people coming into the care system by offering their families support before difficulties escalate to a point where the family can no longer manage. Foster carers offer part-time care to provide both the children and their families with a break. Arrangements are made to suit the needs of the family.

Parent and child fostering, sometimes known as ‘mother and baby fostering’, involves taking care of a parent (usually a young mother) and her baby in a foster care environment.

Parent and child placements are needed as they support a new parent who might be having difficulties looking after their new baby. Often, these parents may have been in care themselves (or may still be in care) or not have experienced a positive form of parenting.

Kinship care is where children unable to live with their parents and who come into care are raised by family members or friends. Kinship carers are sometimes called family and friends carers because the carer does not have to be a relative - they could be a close family friend for example.