Children are the most innocent form of human beings! However not all children are lucky enough to enjoy a good and healthy environment and a safe upbringing. Foster care is a way of offering children and young people a home while their own family are unable to look after them. This can be for a variety of reasons, from temporary illness to issues such as abuse within their home or the death of a primary carer. This is often a temporary arrangement, and many fostered children eventually get to return to their own families once the issues are resolved. However the children will have sometimes endure a challenging period with the foster families and adapting themselves to the new environment.

Based on the duration of foster care required, children/young people are put under appropriate form of care. Types of foster care followed in UK are;

Emergency foster care – when a child needs a safe place for just few nights of stay

Short term foster care – when children need to stay for a few weeks or months until some concrete future stay plans are made for them by the government

Remand care – when young people who might have done wrong and are remanded by the court to be looked after by special carers, remand care is most sought option during such cases.

Fostering for adoption – when babies or small kids are taken care by families who plan to adopt them in the future. It can be considered as a trial period to see if the kids get adapted to the new family and the carers are able to accept the kid as their family member.

Shortbreaks care – disabled children, or those who have special needs with behavioural difficulties are sent to stay for a while with a family. This gives the parents a short break from caring and to rejuvenate themselves to continue to care better.

Long term foster care – this is probably the care given to the children who are away from their birth parents for a long term sometimes permanently due to various reasons . Such children continue to stay with their foster families until they grow up to become adults and seek out their own living.

Foster carers are known as foster parents and will be guardians of those children. Different countries have different foster care laws. Foster care is intended to be a short-term solution until a permanent placement can be made. Upbringing of children is a big responsibility and those who provide foster care to give a warm and cozy home for the destitute children are indeed the most kind and generous people.