Different types of fostering

Short-term fostering involves temporarily caring for a child until a permanent plan is made. This can be for a few days, or up to two years, but is often much shorter.

Children who are going to be in care for some time without the opportunity for adoption, benefit hugely from a long-term foster family.

Short break foster carers step in to give children and their families a break from their usual living arrangements. A weekend's worth of fostering might be all that is needed.

Children with special educational needs or disabilities may need a specialist foster carer. You may already have experience of this kind of care, or may have transferable skills from your place of work. Training is available.

Parent and child fostering is when a young person, who may be in the later stages of pregnancy or has a new born baby, comes to live with a foster family.

There are a growing number of children in the East of England who have arrived in the UK with no responsible adult to care for them.

Supported lodgings foster care can be made available to children aged 16 to 18 as they become an independent adult.