Glossary

Care Order

A Care Order may be granted (by the Courts) if it is considered unsafe for the child to live at home. A child or young person to whom a Care Order has been granted is classed as 'looked after'. The legal parental responsibility for the looked after child or young person is then either solely placed with the Local Authority or shared between the Local Authority and the child's birth parents.

The Local Authority is responsible for key decisions about the child's welfare and who they live with. Local Authorities can then place a child or young person with a foster carer registered with them, or registered with an IFA. They also control who the child has contact with.

Fostering

Fostering is a way of providing family life for someone else’s child in your own home when they are unable to live with their birth family.

Foster care placements can be short term or long term, and can last for days, months or years. Many children return home to their birth families, but others may receive long term support, either through continued fostering, adoption, residential care, or by being helped to live independently. Learn more about fostering.

Fostering Fees and Allowances

Fostering fees/allowances are provided to cover living costs and offer a reward element in recognition of the demands of becoming a foster carer. Fostering fees/allowances will often vary between fostering agency that you register with. FCA's fostering fees/allowances take into account the professionalism and significance of the role that foster carers play in the lives of looked after children and young people. Learn more about fostering fees and allowances at FCA.

Foster Carer/Foster Parent

Foster Carers play a vital role in providing a safe, secure and stable fostering environment for someone else’s child when they are unable to live with their birth family.

FCA foster carers encourage positive and bright futures for looked after children and young people. Learn more about becoming a foster parent.

Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA)

IFA’s work in partnership with Local Authorities or Health Trusts to provide placements for looked after children and young people. FCA is the UK’s largest Independent Fostering Agency. Learn more about Independent Fostering Agencies.

Local Authorities (LA) (and their role in fostering)

Local Authorities are the legal guardians of any looked after children and young people. Local Authorities place looked after children and young people into care using their own foster carers and foster carers registered with Independent Fostering Agencies (such as FCA). Learn more about FCA's relationship with Local Authorities.

Looked after children and young people

This is the term used to describe children who are placed into foster care who are between the ages of 0-18.

Placements

This is the term used to describe placing looked after children and young people into foster care families. FCA has over 2100 foster care families currently registered with us and over 2400 looked after children and young people in placements. IFA's are usually asked to provide a foster placement for children that the local social services or social work department can't place with their own foster carers. There is currently up to a 10,000 shortage of foster carers nationwide.

Respite placements

Respite involves children living with foster carers having short stays with another foster family to give their family/main carers a break. This can last for a weekend, one week or two weeks. Read more about support for our foster carers at FCA

Sanctuary Seeking Children and Young People

A Sanctuary Seeking child or young person is someone who is under 18 years of age, separated from parents/family, applying for asylum in their own right. Foster carers taking in this type of placement must be sympathetic towards the cultural values and religious beliefs of the Sanctuary Seeking Child or Young Person. FCA's foster carer training covers this type of placement. Read more about the different types of placement at FCA

Team Parenting^®

FCA's Team Parenting^® model of fostering draws together a range of qualified professionals from different fields to form a multi-disciplinary team, aimed at addressing the child or young person’s therapeutic needs. Learn more about Team Parenting^®.

Would you like to join FCA and become part of the UK's leading Independent Fostering Agency? Simply fill in our carer recruitment form and we'll get back to you shortly.