One minute guide: Leeds Fostering Service

What is Leeds Fostering Service

Fostering is where a child or young person between the ages of 0 and 18, who has become looked after, lives with a foster carer in a family home. This is often temporary or short term but is sometimes a long term arrangement.

Leeds City Council recognises that a child's needs are best met by a nurturing family and is committed to placing children who are not able to remain in their own family in appropriate alternative family based placements wherever possible.

Leeds Fostering Service's main areas of work are:

Recruiting and retaining foster carers

There is a dedicated team.

Supporting existing foster carers

There are four teams of supervising social workers, including:

• one specialist team supporting carers of children with complex needs
• one team supporting foster carers with teenagers
• two teams for supporting mainstream foster carers

Working with kinship (family and friends) carers

There are two teams:

• one assessing prospective carers
• one providing support to existing kinship carers

How do people become foster carers

The council has its own Foster4Leeds website external link and through this, people are encouraged to register an interest in becoming a foster carer.

People over the age of 21 may apply to become a foster carer but those between the ages of 21 and 25 years would need to provide evidence of relevant transferable skills and / or related experience.

There is immediate exclusion of any applicant who has been convicted of any serious offence against a child or adult.

There is an approval process which starts with a conversation about fostering and is followed (if both parties agree to proceed at each stage) by a home visit, training, preparation and if appropriate, the formal application and statutory checks.

Prospective foster carers must enjoy the challenges of childcare, and have qualities such as patience, resourcefulness, flexibility and a sense of humour.

Foster carers are provided with various types of support, including financial support, to help them with their role.

What kinds of fostering placements are there in Leeds

Foster carer placements may be for babies, young children and older children and young people, including teenagers. All long term placement matches of children, young people and foster carers must be made by a fostering panel.

There are a number of different types of fostering placement in Leeds including:

Short term

This is a time limited arrangement.

Long term

This is for planned, permanent placements where a decision has been made that this is the best arrangement for the child or young person.

Short breaks

This is planned, where children and young people stay with another foster carer as part of the child's plan.

Parent / child assessment

This is where the child and parent(s) stay together in a placement to help provide an assessment of the parents' ability to care for their child as part of an agreed plan. Residential and non-residential placements are available.

Support care

This is part of a package of support (including day care and child minding) where carers provide planned time limited support to maintain children within their families and prevent children coming into care.

Fostering for children and young people with disabilities

This includes the same range of fostering placements as above, but the foster carers have specialist skills and experience of providing care to disabled children.

Kinship care

This is where placements are provided by people already known to the child or young person and may be a family member or a friend. These placements involve family members or friends who have been approved by the local authority as foster carers.

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