Long-Term Fostering

About Long-Term Foster Care

Could you offer a child a safe and nurturing home where they can feel part of the family?

As a long-term foster carer, you will provide stability for children whose parents or legal guardians are not able to take care of them. You will offer a child a home on a semi-permanent basis, often until they are ready to live independently.

As a long-term foster carer, you will have the chance to see the child in your care grow into a young adult. Ultimately, you will help to turn a child’s life around, supporting them to reach their full potential.

Benefits of Long-Term Foster Care

Long-term fostering has an incredible range of benefits, especially for the children and young people who find stable and loving homes, but also for foster carers.

It provides young people with a sense of stability. They can adjust to your home in their own time, building up trust and secure relationships.
Long-term foster carers model healthy relationships to children and young people who may not have experienced this within their own families. This helps young people to replicate healthy relationship dynamics in adulthood.
Long-term foster carers provide young people with an emotional framework with which to process and work through difficulties arising from the trauma they have experienced.
A long-term environment can help children and young people to feel genuinely supported at their own pace and realise their true potential.

The Matching Process

Long-term foster carers invite a young person to move into their home semi-permanently. There is a long-term matching process to ensure that your home, personality and lifestyle are suitable for the child in question and that their individual needs will be met. This matching process is so important as it enables the whole family to feel safe, secure and able to develop and grow.

Training and Support

What makes Five Rivers different is the level of support we provide. Alongside our 24/7 specialist support, we offer regular training, including sessions in Attachment and Trauma Informed Care (ATIC™), an initiative developed by Five Rivers Child Care. This enables our foster carers to undertake the demanding but rewarding task of helping traumatised children form healthy attachments and turn their lives around.

Is Long-Term Fostering for You?

Are you ready to support a child as they grow, providing the safe and stable environment they deserve?

Long-term foster care offers an unparalleled opportunity to turn a child’s life around. It is a role which is both demanding and hugely rewarding. As such, you will be provided with support, guidance and specialist training from a range of professionals throughout your time with us.

Think long term fostering might be right for you? Find out what it might be like by reading about Sarah and Steve’s long term fostering journey.

Ready to take the next step? Book a call with our friendly Carer Enquiry Team or enquire online.

Become a Long-Term Foster Carer

Making the decision to become a foster carer can feel like a big commitment. You can register your interest and we’d be happy to have a no obligation chat with you about whether fostering could be right for you.

Enquire Now