Parent and child foster care
Parent and child foster care involves the placement of a
parent who is experiencing difficulties and their baby or young
child in a foster home where guidance is available.
The foster carer helps and encourages the parent to develop
their skills and occasionally provides parental care. They
have an important role to observe how the parent looks after
the child and need to keep good records.
This can be a very complex and challenging type of care and
requires a number of skills and qualities including:
- assertiveness
- discretion
- confidence
- sensitivity
- 24-hour commitment.
This placement is often an alternative to a mother/father baby
unit. It usually results from a court referral. A baby's
social worker may decide on this placement if the parent is
not coping well and needs extra help but doesn't have an
extended family. The parent might not necessarily be a young
person.
Please view the list of all the other types of foster care
available.