Special needs fostering

Foster care is when a family welcome someone else’s child[ren] into their home on a temporary basis. For a variety of reasons, children sometimes need to be looked after in an alternative family setting to their own. It may be that their parents are ill, or in prison, they may be having relationship problems or the strain of being a single parent has got too much. Sometimes the child or young person has been hurt, physically or emotionally, and the only way to deal with the situation is to remove the child completely.

The length of time children stay with a foster family can vary from day care, overnight stays and regular planned weekends or holiday stays, to weeks, months or several years. In most cases, the children will be able to return to their family and foster carers and social workers aim for this wherever possible. In a few cases this is not possible and some children may stay in foster care for several years or be placed for adoption.

Being a foster carer means working in a team, working with social workers and the children’s families, with other foster carers, with lawyers, doctors and other professionals and of course with your own family.

Foster care can take up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you are looking after a very young child or it can be for much shorter periods for example having a disabled child to stay for a few hours a week so that their family can have a break.

Fostering offers the chance to make a difference to children’s lives and can be both rewarding and fun. contact us...

Fostering for children with a disability or learning difficulty

Children needing foster care include the disabled child, children with medical conditions or physical or learning disabilities, such as autism, hyperactivity, attention deficits, or reading or learning difficulties. A disabled child needs extra special love care and attention in some cases the child may need to be placed in foster home that have a downstairs bathroom and bedroom. Some may need special medication or care routines.

The special needs fostercarer of a disabled child must be interested in helping them reach their full potential, be willing to undergo training if appropriate and to learn related communication or medical skills.

Fostering a special needs child can be a very rewarding experience.

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Special needs foster care

Children needing foster care include those with :

•medical conditions or

•physical or learning disabilities, such as

  autism, hyperactivity, attention deficits, or reading difficulties.

They often need:

•extra special love

•care and attention

•in some cases may need to be placed in foster homes that have

  a downstairs bathroom and bedroom.

•some may need special medication or care routines.

Their carers must be:

•interested in helping them reach their full potential

•be willing to undergo training

•if appropriate, to learn related communication or medical skills

  Support and ongoing specialist training is provided to fostercarers

  willing to undertake this often highly rewarding work.