Parent and Child Fostering

Parent and child foster care

What is a parent and child placement?

Parent and child fostering, also known as mother and baby fostering, is a type of fostering placement which involves taking care of a parent (usually a young mother) and her baby in a foster care environment. This is to provide extra support and guidance to the parent during the first few stages of becoming a parent and having another person to look after, as well as themselves.

Parent and child placements are needed as they support a new parent who might be having difficulties looking after their new baby. Often, these parents may have been in care themselves – or have not experienced great parenting. As a parent and child foster carer, your role is to act as an experienced parental figure to help guide the young mother to become a better parent.

In some cases, the parent in the parent and child fostering placement may have a learning difficulty or mental health challenges, which can cause them to have difficulties understanding how to become a parent.

Parent and child assessments

A parent and child assessment will be undertaken during the parent and child’s stay with the foster family. Taking place over a 3 month period, this will assess the parent’s capabilities of caring for their child. A parent and child foster carer will be specially trained to facilitate this assessment, as well as being trained extensively in Observation and Recording.

There will be regular reviews every two weeks on the relationship between the parent and the child, and the 6-8 week point marks an interim report – detailing how well the parent is performing in the assessment. A final report will be created within two weeks after the 12 week mark, with detailed recommendations of how to proceed.

Find out more about parent and child assessments from our detailed guide.

How to become a parent and child foster carer with FosterCare UK

Here at FosterCare UK, we offer unwavering support and extensive training every step of your fostering journey, in order to help you become the best foster carer you can be. Our parent and child foster placements also provide:

• Attendance at Court where directed
• 24hr duty service cover
• A baby monitor system if required
• FosterCare UK assessor’s attendance at any meetings and reviews where required
• Parent and Child Intervention Worker who will assess parent’s capacity to budget, shop, cook
• Parent and child carer support groups facilitated by a child psychologist
• Supervised contact for absent parent with recording available on request
• Ongoing community-based support and assessment where it is deemed beneficial to the parent available on request

For more information about our parent and child foster care placements, get in touch with a member of our friendly team here at FosterCare UK. Alternatively, learn more about our different types of fostering placements available.