Types of Fostering
You could foster in a variety of ways, with each type of fostering equally important in supporting vulnerable children and young people. Explore some of the different types of fostering we support below to help you understand what type of fostering is best for you.
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Therapeutic Fostering
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Fostering Young People
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Empowering Therapeutic Care
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Stay Over Fostering
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Parent and Child Fostering
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Fostering Siblings
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Fostering Teenagers
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Fostering Children With Disabilities
Empowering Therapeutic Care
All children who have had a difficult start benefit from a therapeutic response when foster carers look after them. However, due to some children’s experiences, they require an additional level of care and attention. As you may expect these children have a variety of additional, and often complex, needs. Their needs might be linked to past trauma, abuse or a severe disruption in their lives. An Empowering Therapeutic Care Foster Carer (ETCFC) is specifically trained to deliver the support and care which explores, recognises and begins to help the child to understand and process their trauma.
Empowering Therapeutic Care Foster Carers (ETCFC) are trained in a variety of therapeutic techniques, including those of Dan Hughes, Kim Golding, Sarah Naish, Betsy de Thierry, Dr Stephen Porges and Bessel Van Der Kolk amongst others. This is complemented by specialist clinical and social work support which educates and equips our ETCFC with the specialist skills and practical tools needed.
ETCFC's become part of Empower's therapeutically informed multidisciplinary team, having access to additional practical support from an Empowering Therapeutic Change Worker (ETCW). This specialist multi-disciplinary team will meet regularly and look at the child’s needs on every level, learning about their trauma, understanding and developing ways to support them together. By working together as a team it will allow us to know how to care for foster children who need this higher level of support in the most effective and nurturing way possible.
As an ETCFC, your role will be to provide the secure family setting like our other extraordinary Foster Carers would, but also provide the therapeutic environment and practical support that helps the young person on their journey to recovery.
Training and Support
We have designed and developed a bespoke ETC program which is unique to Empower – being part of our Multidisciplinary Team as an ETFC you will work alongside other professionals. This is a specialist therapeutic fostering program which is designed to provide enhanced support, with practical and educational resources for our Foster Carers and the children referred to our program. Our service provides more children with the opportunity for greater longevity in a stable family home, which will be supported by an informed therapeutic team.
Our ETFC's are provided with additional support, ongoing therapeutic foster care training, as well as practical support with access to your own ETCW who is also therapeutically trained, to better assist and guide you through the logistics of being part of this specialist team. They will provide pragmatic and meaningful assistance designed to be supportive to our carers and young people. As an ETFC, your role will be to provide the secure family setting like our other extraordinary Foster Carers would, but also provide the therapeutic environment and practical support that helps the young person on their journey to recovery.
Fostering Young People
Fostering young people is about giving a safe and caring family home to a young person in need.
As a foster carer you will provide children and young people with the security to be themselves, explore their skills, and experience living in a supportive, safe and stable family. You could care for children and young people from a wide range of backgrounds and lived experiences including those with additional needs. Our children and young people may require a unique level of understanding, patience, and support to thrive. Whether these needs are physical, learning, or emotional, fostering provides a vital opportunity for them to reach their full potential within a nurturing family environment.
You could change the lives of young people, giving them a childhood that knows safety, stability, and consistency. We'll be by your side, supporting you through everything to help them grow, and thrive. We welcome applicants with a wide range of lived experiences including those with limited or no parenting experience as we will support you to develop your skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a young person in your care. Through the assessment we will help you to think about the right type of fostering for you and your family and will provide opportunities for you to develop and learn new skills.
Fostering Sanctuary Seeking Children
We have identified that locally there is a significant shortage of families who are able to care for children who are seeking asylum (also known unaccompanied asylum seeking children). Many of these young people will have fled countries plagued by war and conflict, enduring traumatic experiences along the way. Numerous sanctuary seeking children in the UK have undertaken perilous journeys to escape harrowing situations in their home nations.
What is the role of a Sanctuary Seeking Foster Carer?
Sanctuary seeking children will require support, like any other child, in all areas of their life. This support will offer them a stable, safe and secure living environment whilst assuring them they are not alone. In addition, it is likely that these children will require additional support in coping with the loss of family or adjusting to a new cultural environment.
The Empower Family Group has knowledge and experience providing supported living and services for sanctuary seeking young people. This means that Empower Fostering has access to helpful knowledge, resources, and connections for information. We offer a generous fostering allowance, access to specialist resources and support.
In our wonderfully diverse society, Foster Carers have the opportunity to connect children with their broader community, including visits to mosques and churches of various denominations. Some children may have limited or no experience of speaking the English language, we will therefore be on hand to help establish connections with specialised agencies to support our Foster Carers and children with the help they need.
Stay Over Fostering
Our stay over foster carers play an important role in supporting families to have a break. Stay over fostering (previously known as respite fostering) is a type of short-term foster placement where the child or children are placed with your family in order to provide a breather for their current family.
Often in foster families, the level of a care that a foster child needs can be challenging. Children who have come from a traumatic past, or children with disabilities or special educational needs may require a great deal of care and attention. A stay over foster care placement allows for both the carers and the children to have a break, recharge and have some space. Where possible, children go to the same stay over foster carers each time so that the child can build good relationships, feel comfortable and have consistency.
Stay over care can be from as little as overnight, to a weekend or as long as a fortnight. This can be sporadic or a regular routine for the child or children in care.
As a stay over foster carer, you will have breaks between placements – and know when these breaks take place. This means you can organise your schedule and life to fit around stay over foster care placements. Many stay over foster carers continue to work whilst they offer stay over care during weekends and school holidays, and Empower will support you in understanding what time and support you have available to offer to children.
Parent and Child Fostering
Parent and Child Placements are a time limited arrangement, and a specialized type of foster care placement designed to keep families together. Unlike traditional fostering, where a child is placed with foster carers on their own, in a parent and child placement, a parent (or sometimes both parents) and their child live together in the foster carers' home for a specified period of time.
Foster carers offer a temporary home in which a child and their parent(s) can remain together while receiving guidance and support. The foster carers will help parents to learn the skills they need to safely care for their children to enable them to reach their potential. This support can make a huge difference to families supporting them to remain together, develop healthy relationships and grow in confidence.
Parent and child fostering placements are about support, learning, and family preservation. They offer a unique opportunity for parents to develop their skills in a safe and supportive environment, with the ultimate goal of ensuring children can remain safely and happily with their parents long-term. It's a team effort involving the parents, foster carers, and social workers, all working towards the best interests of the child.
Fostering Siblings
When a child or young person enters foster care, it can be a scary time, only made worse by being isolated from their siblings. We strongly believe that all siblings should be placed together where appropriate and whenever possible. Being placed together helps maintain their emotional and physical well-being. Unfortunately, there are not enough Foster Carers who can support this. Could you help by fostering siblings?
Fostering Teenagers
Children and young people can enter into care as teenagers and are likely to have experienced neglect, abuse and trauma, where stability, boundaries and nurturing parental care may not have featured in their young lives. Teenagers need just as much love and care as younger children.
At Empower, we offer a bespoke training package to help support our carers in looking after teenagers to ensure that they can have the best possible start and outcomes.
Fostering teenagers means you get to help vulnerable children and young people explore their potential and help them to reach the best of their ability.
Fostering Children with Disabilities
Fostering young people is about giving a safe and caring family home to a young person in need.
As a foster carer you will provide children and young people with the security to be themselves, explore their skills, and experience living in a supportive, safe and stable family. You could care for children and young people from a wide range of backgrounds and lived experiences including those with additional needs. Our children and young people may require a unique level of understanding, patience, and support to thrive. Whether these needs are physical, learning, or emotional, fostering provides a vital opportunity for them to reach their full potential within a nurturing family environment.
You could change the lives of young people, giving them a childhood that knows safety, stability, and consistency. We'll be by your side, supporting you through everything to help them grow, and thrive. We welcome applicants with a wide range of lived experiences including those with limited or no parenting experience as we will support you to develop your skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a young person in your care. Through the assessment we will help you to think about the right type of fostering for you and your family and will provide opportunities for you to develop and learn new skills.
