Placements

After you have been approved, you can start to accept placements.

When a social services department wants to place a child they will contact a suitable foster carer to see if they are able to accept the child.

Carers are not obliged to accept foster children. They may have other commitments or may feel that the child is not a suitable match for their family.

However if you have been approved as an emergency or short-term foster carer, you may not get much time to consider the suitability of the child, who could be placed with you any time of the day or night, any day of the week with very little notice.

Some foster carers will care for hundreds of children over the years. Others may just take care of one or two.

Many local authorities, in an effort to cut the number of moves children make while in care, are increasingly looking for more long-term foster carers who can take in children for several years until they are independent adults. These tend to be older children who are difficult to place for adoption.

After you have been approved, you should be assigned a social worker who is there to support you, should you need it.

There may also be opportunities to go on training courses to improve your skills as a carer.

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