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Why Do Children Need Foster Care?

Every child is unique.

There are no two children in foster care who look the same, behave in the same way, or have the same talents and abilities. One of the joys of fostering is that every child presents a new challenge, even for the most experienced carers, and every child has the capacity to grow and to change and to reach their potential, and the rewards for carers of seeing children and young people progress while in their care are immense.

Many children who need a new family have experienced some degree of neglect, and/or physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and all of them will have experienced loss and separation from their birth family. Even if the children present as happy and smiling, their past experiences will have an effect on their behaviour and development.

Some children express their emotions and feelings through difficult or challenging behaviour, such as tantrums, or being withdrawn, aggressive, clingy, rejecting, or over-compliant. Other children may act older or younger than their years, or as a result of being placed with many differnet carers may not know what is expected of them, or may find it difficult to develop trusting relationships with adults.

To give you an idea of some of the children and young people we foster, here are a few examples (not real people) to get you thinking. All of these children and young people have different needs, and therefore will require different approaches and responses.

Maisie, aged 16.
Maisie is an African Caribbean teenager who is 7 months pregnant.

 

 

Mark, aged 16.
Mark is a streetwise teenager who has a white mother and a dual heritage father.

 

 

Jade, aged 13.
In the words of her foster carer.

 

 

Carers need to be able to understand the impact of children’s life experiences on their development in order to know how best to help, and this understanding will come through a range of sources, backed up by carer training and support.