Fostering to help young parents develop their parenting skills.
As a parent and child carer, you'd have a baby or child and one or both parents placed in your home, for up to 12 weeks or more. If you're fostering as a couple, one carer would need to be available full time.
You wouldn't directly look after the child. You'd help and encourage the parent to develop their parenting skills by giving them support and being a role model. You'd be responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the child.
Parent and child foster care may help the birth parent and the child:
- bond in the crucial early months together
- stay together in the long term
To be a parent and child carer you'll need to have:
- good communication skills
- patience, and understanding of parental challenges
- detailed knowledge of caring for young children
As a parent and child carer you'll need to:
- supervise the birth parent and observe how the parent cares for the child
- keep good notes of what you see and observe
Your notes will be part of our assessment, and will help us decide whether the parents can safely keep their child.
Specialist foster carer fees
Parent and child fostering is one of our specialist schemes.
If you decide to become a Parent and child foster carer, you'll get a total of £800 which includes fees and age–based allowance for both the child and their parent.
You can find more information on our fees and allowances page.
