What does the role involve?

What does the role involve, day to day?

As well as offering a safe, loving and nurturing home, being a foster carer is about helping children and young people to thrive. This means advocating and caring for children, being someone that they can trust and talk to, being someone who will support their educational, health and social wellbeing, and who will celebrate their achievements with them.

Types of Foster Care

There are many different types of foster care, which each bring different responsibilities.  

• Some foster carers will look after children in emergency situations. This usually means a child will stay with them overnight or for a couple of days. 
• Others will look after children on a 'short-term' basis, which might mean a child stays with them for a few weeks or months, until they can return to live with their family or move on to a permanent new home. 
• Some foster carers look after children for all their childhood until they become adults known as ‘long term’ fostering.

As part of a fostering assessment, you will explore which kind of fostering is best for you. In all cases, it’s important for foster carers to understand what they need to do to provide a stable, loving home for the children in their care.

Meeting the needs of the child or young person

Your day-to-day responsibilities as a foster carer will depend on the age, number and needs of the children in your care. For example, foster carers who look after babies and very young children will be responsible for all aspects of their personal care, whereas those looking after teenagers will have responsibilities around schooling and navigating relationships. You will have a chance to understand and talk about the specific needs of each child in your care as part of planning for their arrival.  

Foster carers can be approved to look after up to three children at once but will usually focus on caring for children or young people of a particular age. Find out more about becoming a foster carer.

Supporting family time 

It is often important for children and young people in foster care to keep in touch with their own family – mum, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles or grandparents – through regular meetings as well as phone calls or video calls. Foster carers play a big part in supporting a child or young person’s relationships with their own family and friends.  

Your specific responsibilities around family time will depend on the age, number and needs of the children in your care, but you will discuss exactly what is needed as part of planning for their arrival.  

Working with others in the team around the child 

As well as providing day-to-day care for children and young people, foster carers have a range of responsibilities as a professional. These include:

• keeping records 
• attending meetings 
• working with the wider team supporting a child, including social workers and their fostering service. 

In the team around the child, foster carers are often the people who know the child best. For this reason, it’s important that foster carers act as advocates for the children in their care, to make sure that all decisions are in their best interests. It’s also important for foster carers to recognise when they need help to deal with a particular situation, which may include challenging behaviour, or when things do not go to plan. 

Managing your finances

All foster carers receive a sum of money called a fostering allowance to cover the cost of looking after the children in their care. Some will also be paid a fee to recognise the skills and experience they bring to the role of fostering. It will be important for you to manage your finances to meet the needs of the child, and your own expenses. Find out more about managing your finances as a foster carer. 

Keeping your skills and knowledge up to date

Children and young people need foster carers from all backgrounds and with a wide range of life, work, and caring experiences. All foster carers receive training before being approved to foster, giving them the tools, and complementing their skills and experience, to help meet the needs of any child in their care. Throughout their fostering career, there will be opportunities and expectations to complete further training, as well as ongoing support. Foster carers are also encouraged to reflect on their actions to learn from experiences and continuously develop their skills.