The Foster Care System

Foster Care is a system by which a ‘Stand’ in set of parents care for Children or Young People who have been removed from their birth parents by a Local Authority. When a child is taken into care proceedings are made though an appointed court who award a legal status to a Local Authority or other appropriate ‘care giver’ sometimes this can be a member of the child’s immediate family.

Some Looked-after Children are taken into Residential Children’s Homes by the relevant Authority before possibly finding a placement into a Foster Family that is suitable.

Some Children or Young People will be in care until their birth family are able to care for them or if the rights of the family are terminated, then, Fostering or Adoption, Residential Child Care can become a possibility depending on the outcome of the appropriate assessment.

Foster Care or Adoption?

What happens when Looked-after Children are placed for Adoption?

This process differs from Fostering as the adoptive parent(s) become the legal guardian for the child or children.

In many cases these Children are under the age of 10 years old, although this depends on the adopter, there are many children awating to be adopted.

Sometimes the Foster Care system is used to bridge the time between deciding on the permanent placement for the child. The legal system and professional in the child care field all share the common belief that the ‘needs of the child are paramount’ We all work together to ensure long-term positive outcomes are met and by being in care doesn’t become a negative or traumatic experience.

On any given day in the U.K there are 68,000 Children in the care system, this number has been fairly consistant, over the last two years it has slighlty increased.

Of the Children placed in care 45,000 are in Foster Care and 10,000 are placed in a Residential Child Care Envirnoment. There is a current shortage of 7,000 Foster Carers to meet current demands. We seek to find Foster Carers with a wide range of backgrounds as the needs of Children in Care often changes.

The long standing gap within the care population for children who need Family Placements is a combination of the national shortage of Foster Carers (and adopters)

• The age in which Children are taken into Care (Early intervention has shown to provide positive longitudinal outcomes).
• Support and Training given to Foster Carers.
• Fostering Allowances ( this varies widely in both the public and private sector our allowances start from £401 per week)
• The legal processes surrounding Children in Care can at times be incredibly complex for long-term care planning, sometimes can take years to be concluded.

Within the Foster Care framework Local authorities become the legal guardians for the Children and Young People. Overall they have the statutory responsibility for Looked-after Children within each council boundary.

Five Rivers has been working closely with the majority of local authorities for the past twenty years, we are the preferred provider in both Residential Child Care, Therapeutic Care and Foster Care services, in some cases we have been successfully been managing specific parts of local authority services.This is due to the long-term investments we have made in our practice development models, Training and Staff selection.

Authorities work with Five Rivers when they need specialist placements or when their own provisions are full. Above all they require a needs-led, trustworthy and reliable service that can deliver the requirements for each Looked-after child.

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