We need to provide a wide range of fostering types, all designed to meet the care needs of children and young people who, for shorter or more planned periods, are unable to live with their families. The following fostering types indicate the range of fostering available. We may need to prioritise recruitment of carers for certain fostering types in order to meet shortfalls of available carers for groups of looked after children and young people.
Short term / temporary fostering
Short term fostering provides placements for children and young people who need time limited periods of care. This could be for a few days, weeks and sometimes, months. Children placed in temporary placements need support until they return to their families or move to longer term planned placements, including adoption. Children who need this type of support are across the age range – from babies and infants up to teens. All our short term carers provide placements often in an emergency or at short notice.
Long term / permanent fostering
Some children are unable to live with their birth families on a permanent basis. Long term foster care provides planned placements for children and young people, often for a number of years. Many children are still in contact with their birth families, so a key responsibility for long term carers is supporting contact for their fostered child(ren). Long term fostering allows a child to grow up in a safe, secure environment often until they reach their teens and leave care.
Planned short breaks
fostering
This provides help and support to children living at home with their families by foster carers offering planned overnight or weekend stays for agreed periods. Children can typically spend one to three overnight stays with a foster carer every few weeks. The breaks are carefully planned, with children being matched to available, suitable foster carers. Most short breaks agreements last between 6 and 12 months. We are particularly interested in carer households where there is a male adult role model / carer to assist with supporting older children /young people.
(For more details on Short Breaks fostering, please contact the scheme coordinator on: 0113 2478741).
Kinship Care fostering (friends and family)
Sometimes it may be necessary for the relatives / extended family / friends of a child to become involved in their care with the help of Leeds City Council. If this is considered appropriate, you will need to have your initial enquiry and circumstances considered by a social worker based at one of our area offices or One Stop Centres. The Fostering Service may be contacted once an initial assessment by social work staff has been achieved and then asked to undertake a suitability assessment. Once approved, the fostering service then provides a range of advice and support for a Kinship foster carer commitment.
Please note: If you have an initial enquiry or interest about kinship care fostering, please contact the Leeds City Council call centre on: 0845 125 0113 and ask for details of the social work area office / one stop centre which covers your postcode / location.
Payment for Skills Level 4 Fostering
We have traditionally provided the range of fostering 'schemes' below for which foster carers providing these services receive the highest weekly fee (plus child's age related allowance). Now called Level 4 fee paid fostering, this is the highest most skilled and experienced fostering provision and requires of carers certain skills, competencies and / or related experience. Level 4 fostering is designed to provide placements for much more behaviourally demanding children and young people - it is unusual for us to be able to take up applications for this level of fostering if applicants have pre-school age children for example.
Assessment fostering
Foster carers on this scheme provide an assessment service of children’s future placement needs over a period of six to nine months. This includes assessing children’s behavioural and emotional needs and assisting their moves to a future placement. Children placed on this scheme can be in the 0 –10 year age range and can often be behaviourally and emotionally demanding, very often having experienced a range of difficulties prior to placement. We also need to provide placement support for young mothers and their babies (parent and child support) as part of this scheme.
Teens and Remand fostering
Foster carers providing structured care and support for demanding youngsters over 10 yrs of age, often including teens and adolescents who need carers for time limited placements. Placements can be required in an emergency or often at short notice. Remand fostering provides time limited placements for youngsters remanded to the local authority by the courts.
Permanency fostering (school age children)
Carers provide long term commitments to children 5yrs and above, many of whom are unable to be be placed for adoption. Consequently, we need to offer long term support and security through to a child’s teens and leaving care. The children needing support through permanency fostering will have experienced neglect, abuse and disruption and as a result, can present some challenging behaviours.
Other specialist fostering
Our Family Placement Service operates fostering schemes for children with disabilities, including short breaks, sitting schemes and permanent placements. For details of the range of Family Placement schemes for children, please contact (0113) 247 8934 or see the Family Placement Homepage link on this page.
Leeds foster carers on fostering
Some of our experienced carers share their views below:
"Getting through to children and helping them heal is the real reward. For us it’s a family commitment because we feel we have lots to share".
"Fostering is a great opportunity to assist children who really need lots of reassurance and support. It’s the joy of seeing relationships with children develop – the pleasure you get when you see a child settled and happy".
"Fostering is rewarding, satisfying exciting, sometime exhausting and stressful and fun".
"Fostering is very challenging but rewarding in so many ways. Seeing young people develop some confidence and self esteem after so much disruption and disappointment in their lives is a great feeling".
"We enjoy the opportunity to help so many children, even if it’s only for a short time. Sometimes it can be difficult to see children go, but you know that you have made a big difference along the way".
"Being able to accept ideas other than your own is a must. Sometimes you will have to take the child back to infancy and bring them up in a new and secure way".
"You will have to change and adapt to understand some behaviours - their world is often very different to yours".
"Knowing that you are part of a team with the same goal in mind helps make the job easier".
All photographs are posed by models