Foster Care Placement Types

Parent and Child

In some cases, new parents might need help in developing their parenting skills. Parent and child placements are a type of specialist placement, in which foster carers offer a home to both a parent (or both parents) and their child, usually for around a few months, to provide guidance and allow them to learn how to provide care for their child. 

Parents involved in this type of placement are often young, and in some cases may be under the age of 18, or they may be pregnant with the child when they are enter the placement. Foster carers in this instance have a large and unique responsibility, therefore specialist training for the role is required.

Short-term Foster Care

Short-term placements are where a child arrives into a temporary placement, often for a few days or weeks (in some cases longer), while other arrangements can be made for them. This is usually because their current home is deemed unsafe for a variety of reasons, and a temporary home is needed for them before they can be moved to a longer-term placement.

Bridging Foster Care

Bridging placements are a type of short-term foster care which involve temporarily caring for babies or very young children until more permanent arrangements can be made. They may be moving on to adoption, or long-term care elsewhere. 

Either way, these roles are crucial to ensure the temporary safety of such a young child. Although it is a type of short-term placement, bridging placements can last up to a few months or longer, and play a big role in the child’s wellbeing.

Emergency Foster Care

This is a special type of placement in which a child needs to be placed into care with very short notice, often under 24 hours. No prior planning or introductions take place, and often the placement is very short-term, only lasting until a more suitable placement can be found. 

This might be because the child’s home environment is urgently deemed unsafe, or due to unexpected health problems or the death of their current carers. Emergency foster care ensures the child in question is temporarily safe and secure, until further arrangements for them can be made.

Solo Foster Care

In a solo placement, the foster child in question must be the only individual being cared for in the household. I.e. other children are not present, such as birth children or other foster children. 

This type of placement is catered towards young people in care with more complex or tasking needs, who therefore require more attention from their carers than the average placement. This might be because the child has come from a background of significant trauma or abuse, or the child has exhibited particularly challenging emotional, behavioural or physical difficulties. 

Fostering Siblings

This type of placement involves taking siblings into care in one placement. Agencies do everything they can to keep siblings together where appropriate, so this type of care is in particularly high demand. Same sex siblings can share a room, but brothers and sisters require separate rooms. 

Carers in this role will receive special training to deal with a sibling dynamic, and should be confident in taking on more than one child at a time. Siblings often benefit greatly from being kept together having come from difficult backgrounds, so providing them with a safe environment while keeping them together is really valuable.