What Is A Foster Carer?

Being a foster carer is so much more than providing a bed and putting a roof over someone’s head – it is helping each child to build a better life. 

As a foster carer, you’ll provide day-to-day care for children and young people you’ve been placed with, as well as supporting with their education, health and general wellbeing. A specific Placement Plan which is created for each young person, which details how the child’s needs should be met during while living with their foster carer, and this gives carers a detailed guide to follow. Foster carers are highly skilled individuals who make a profound difference to the lives of young people. 

Both before and during your time as a foster carer, you’ll be trained to improve your skills when caring for young people. You’ll receive training in strategies and behavioural management techniques, as well as things like first aid and safer caring. 

Whilst a nurturing and caring home is a key element in foster care, many children will have experienced some degree of trauma due to abuse, neglect or disruption. For these reasons, a therapeutic approach to care is essential. This could include a range of therapies such as those focussing on speech and language, art and play and cognitive/behavioural. As a foster carer, you’ll receive a detailed plan for each child, so your approach and any training undertaken can be bespoke to that child. 

Foster carers are fully supported by their own allocated social worker, along with any additional resources offered by their agency or local authority. At TACT, we’re committed to reinvesting in additional training and support for our carers. This is important because the better support both you as a foster carer and us as an agency can provide, the better the outcomes for our young people’s lives. 

What Is A Foster Parent?

We are regularly asked ‘what is a foster parent?’ and the answer is the same as what a foster carer is!

It means opening your home and your heart to young people at a time when they really need it. Many young people will have different preferences when it comes to what they refer to you as; you might be known as a foster parent, a foster carer, just your name or something completely different! What a young person calls you could stem from their personal experiences or what relationship they maintain with their birth family.

Whether they prefer to call you their foster carer, their foster parent, or simply by your name, we encourage you to be as open and adaptable as possible. 

What does a foster carer do?

Foster carers do an unbelievable role by welcoming young people who are unable to live with their birth families into their homes and providing the care and support that they require. 

Many aspects of the day-to-day care will be very similar to caring for any child, and could include school or college runs, help with homework, timely mealtimes and management of any medication or general health appointments. 

Foster parents are also required to keep regular and accurate records detailing how a placement is progressing in relation to the Care Plan. They will also be included in meetings with a number of professionals such as social workers, health care workers and teachers. 

It is important to note that foster carers do not have parental responsibility for a child in their care. Depending on their legal status, parental responsibility rests either with their parents or with a local authority. However, foster carers are granted delegated authority, meaning they are able to make common every day decisions for a young person.