Respite care

Respite foster care was developed to support families in difficulties by offering the children a regular break away from home. Offering regular breaks helps to keep families together by preventing problems from escalating and leading to breakdown which could lead to children experiencing a longer term or even permanent separation from their birth parents.

How it works

Once assessed and approved a respite foster carer is usually only linked to one child or sibling group at a time. This means that ideally the children always return to the same carers and a bond can start to develop.

Carers offer regular breaks on a planned basis, depending on the needs of the child and birth parents. Usually the breaks are at weekends but they may be during the week or for parts of the school holiday. The usual pattern is one weekend in three or one weekend a month.

On some rare occasions only day care is required.

In most circumstances there is a planned period of introductions between the child and the respite foster carer. The aim is to avoid emergency placements, as these can be very unsettling and distressing for the child. Respite carers can also offer respite to other foster carers.

If you become a respite foster carer, you will receive the same allowances, support and training as all other foster carers. Respite care offers people who are busy during the week the opportunity of designed a flexible type of fostering which is convenient to them.

Applications

Your application will be assessed in exactly the same way as other foster carers.