Life Story Work: Helping a Child Hold On to Their Own Story
Life story work helps a child understand why they came into care and who their family are. It is led by the child’s social worker, but foster carers hold the photographs, the certificates and the small things nobody else keeps. Here is how it works and what your part in it looks like.
Safer Caring: What House Rules Look Like in a Foster Home
Safer caring is the written plan for how your household runs, and it asks less of you than most people fear. Here is what actually goes in one, who writes it, and how it protects your family as well as the child.
Staying Put: What Happens When a Foster Child Turns 18
Most young people in foster care are still living with their carers three months after turning 18. Here is how a Staying Put arrangement works, what changes on the day, what you are paid, and how to decide.
Parent and Child Fostering: What It Actually Involves
In a parent and child placement, a parent and their child both move in with you, usually for around twelve weeks, while social workers assess whether the parent can care for their child alone. Here is what the role involves, what you record, and what it pays.
Respite Care and Short Breaks in Fostering, Explained
Respite fostering means looking after a child for a weekend, a week or the odd night while their usual carers take a planned break. Here is what it involves, what it pays, how the tax works, and why it suits people who cannot give up a full-time job.
Fostering a Child Aged 8 and Over: What to Expect
Most people enquiring about fostering are picturing a toddler, but more than a quarter of children in care in England are sixteen or older. Here is what looking after a child aged 8 and over really involves, from school and pay to the support you get.
Can You Foster in a Rented Home or a Flat?
You do not need to own your home to foster. Here is what renting actually means in practice: landlord permission, the spare bedroom rules, the extra bedroom allowed for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, and what the safety check looks for in a flat.
Emergency Fostering: What Happens When a Child Arrives the Same Day
Emergency placements start with a phone call and end with a child on your doorstep the same evening. Here is what really happens in the first few hours, what you need in the house, who answers when you ring at eleven at night, and how the paperwork catches up afterwards.
Men in Fostering: Why We Need More Male Foster Carers
Most first enquiries to a fostering agency come from women, and the sector has been careless about why. Here is what male foster carers actually do, what puts men off applying, and what the national figures do and do not tell us.
Do Foster Carers Pay Tax? Qualifying Care Relief Explained
Most foster carers pay no income tax on their fostering payments, thanks to Qualifying Care Relief. Here are the 2026/27 figures, worked examples using our own rates, the filing deadlines, and the National Insurance point that catches carers out.