What do foster carers do?

Foster carers offer children and young people a safe, loving and nurturing home when they can't live with their birth families. This means they have a unique chance to make a positive difference to a child's life. 

There are lots of different types of fostering - emergency, short-term, longer-term - but what they all have in common is that the children and young people need someone to care and advocate for them, someone they can trust and talk to, someone who will support their educational, health and social wellbeing and someone who will celebrate their achievements with them. 

Skills and Experience

Children and young people need foster carers from all backgrounds and with a wide range of life, work and care experiences. This allows fostering services to choose the best foster carer to meet the specific needs of a child coming into foster care.  

Foster carers need the patience, resilience, and confidence to deal with situations which do not go to plan. They also need to be observant to recognise when they need to step in or seek assistance to help deal with a particular situation. 

Foster carers are also encouraged to reflect on their actions to learn from experiences and continuously develop their skills. All foster carers will be given ongoing training and support to help them develop the skills they need to help children thrive.