Considering Fostering in Chippenham?
Foster care provides vulnerable young people with a safe, secure, and nurturing family environment, and allows them to keep in contact with their own families as long as it’s in their best interests. We’re currently looking for prospective foster carers in the Chippenham area. Whether you’re an experienced carer, or if you’re completely new to fostering, we’d like to hear from you.
We know how confusing it can be to scour the internet in search of the ideal fostering agency. So, we’ve developed a free agency matching service to help you get the best possible start in fostering by pairing you with the agencies that have the best support packages and allowances in your area.
By choosing to foster in Chippenham you will have a formative impact on the lives of local children and teenagers. Local placements allow young people to continue at their existing school, maintain friendship networks and hopefully help facilitate arrangements for them to return to their families. Read on to find out more about the types of children who need your help.
The Different Types of Foster Care
Every young person in need of foster care is completely unique. To make sure they all get the appropriate form of care, there are several different types of fostering that carers can choose to specialise in—each with their own challenges and rewards. We’ve compiled a list of them all below to help you explore which will be most suited to you and your family:
Emergency Care
Emergency foster carers must be prepared to take a foster child into their home at very short notice. Emergency placements are only ever used for unplanned crises or if a child needs to be rehomed immediately because it has become unsafe for them to stay where they are. These placements usually only last a few days before a longer-term solution can be arranged.
Short-term Foster Care
Short-term carers look after children for a few weeks or months until they can return to their own family or a longer-term placement can be arranged. This is the most common form of foster care in the UK.
Respite or Short Break Care
Respite or short break carers provide children who have special needs or behavioural difficulties with a variety of part-time care. They often have a child to stay for a few hours each week to give their own family or foster carers a much-needed break.
Remand Care
Remand placements are a beneficial alternative to custody for young people who have been remanded by a court. Remand carers receive extra training and are expected to attend all the young person’s court dates.
Parent and Child Fostering
Parent and child placements are designed to support vulnerable families and to prevent unnecessary separations. Carers help often very young, single, parents care for their own children by providing them with advice and support. These placements are typically short-term, often around 12 weeks long.
Siblings
There is currently an urgent need for more carers in Chippenham willing to foster sibling groups. Approximately 37% of all children in care are separating from their siblings. Specialising in this form of care allows these children to stay together during their foster placements.
Fostering for Adoption
Some children, especially infants, are placed with foster carers who have the potential to become their adoptive parents if it’s determined that it would be unsuitable for them to return to their birth family.
Long-term Foster Care
In some cases, children will not be able to be reunited with their birth family for several years, if at all. If they don’t want to be adopted, they will enter long-term foster care and will be placed with families who will provide them with a home until they’re able to look after themselves.
Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children
The UK is currently experiencing an influx of asylum-seeking children, with most fleeing war or civil unrest. Foster carers looking to provide temporary care for asylum-seeking children receive extra training to help guide them through the process of applying to stay in the country permanently.
Specialist Therapeutic Care
Therapeutic fostering is a highly specialised type of foster care that is tailored to support children and young people with very complex needs or challenging behaviour.
Become a Chippenham Foster Carer with Simply Fostering
Chippenham has a substantial shortfall of foster carers, of all kinds. It’s our goal to ensure that there are enough foster carers in Chippenham to provide local placements for all the children and young people who require care, enabling them to stay at their current schools and retain essential bonds with family and friends.
If any of the types of fostering we’ve mentioned above appeal to you, or if you would simply like to find out more about fostering in Chippenham, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by completing the online enquiry form below.
To use our free agency matching service please completing our eligibility quiz will help you to find the best local agencies in and around Chippenham to choose from.
“Be a Chippenham Foster Carer – Love Your Role in a Child’s Life”
