Long-Term Fostering

What Is Long-Term Fostering?

Long-term fostering means caring for a child or young person for an extended period – often years, and sometimes right through to adulthood. It is also known as permanent foster care.

Unlike short-term fostering, where children are with you for a shorter time while plans are made, long-term fostering offers them a secure, stable home where they can settle, grow, and build lasting relationships.

You’ll become a consistent, trusted adult in their life – someone they can rely on for the long haul.

Why Do Children Need Long-Term Foster Care?

A child might be in long-term foster care for several reasons, such as being unable to return to their birth family due to:

• Ongoing safeguarding concerns
• Parental illness, addiction, or absence
• Family breakdown or long-term instability
• Experience of neglect, abuse, or trauma

When this happens, long-term fostering gives children the chance to rebuild their confidence, form healthy attachments, and feel part of a family again.

What Does Long-Term Fostering Involve?

As a long-term foster carer, you’ll:

• Offer a stable and nurturing home environment
• Support the child’s education, development, and emotional wellbeing
• Work alongside schools, social workers, and support teams
• Be their advocate, mentor, and trusted adult
• Help them feel like they belong – every single day

Many foster carers describe it as parenting – just with extra support.

What Are the Benefits of Long-Term Fostering?

Long-term fostering can be life-changing – for the child and for you. Some of the key benefits include:

• Building deep, lasting relationships
• Seeing a young person grow, thrive, and succeed
• Making a long-term impact in someone’s life
• Becoming part of a wider support team with consistent guidance
• Knowing you’ve offered safety and belonging when it mattered most

It’s not always easy – but it is always worth it.

How Is Long-Term Fostering Different from Adoption?

While long-term fostering and adoption both offer children a loving, stable home, there are some important differences:

Parental Rights

• In adoption, all legal parental rights are transferred to the adoptive parents. The child legally becomes part of their new family forever.
• In long-term fostering, the child remains “looked after” by the local authority, and their birth parents may still have some legal involvement or contact.

Ongoing Support

• Long-term foster carers continue to receive support, supervision, and financial allowances from their fostering agency.
• Adoptive parents usually receive less structured support after the adoption is finalised (though support is still available if needed).

Legal vs. Emotional Commitment

• Adoption is a permanent, legal change – the child becomes a full legal member of the adoptive family.
• Long-term fostering is a long-lasting emotional and practical commitment, but the child’s legal status doesn’t change.

Family Contact

• In fostering, children may still have some contact with their birth family (where safe and appropriate).
• In adoption, contact is often limited or completely stopped, depending on the situation.

Who Can Become a Long-Term Foster Carer?

We welcome carers from all kinds of backgrounds – there’s no single ‘type’ of foster carer. If you’re over 21, have a spare room, and can provide a safe, stable, and loving home, you can apply.

You might be:

• Single, married, or living with a partner
• Renting or owning your home
• Working full-time, part-time, or retired
• With or without children of your own

If you’ve got the space in your heart (and your home), we’re ready to support you every step of the way.

Ready to Take the First Step?

Becoming a long-term foster carer is one of the most meaningful things you can do – and we’re here to help make it happen. At Family Works Fostering, we believe that children and young people thrive when they’re given stability, consistency, and love that lasts. It’s a long-term commitment, but one that can truly change a life. Maybe even two.

Frequently Asked Questions: Long Term Fostering