Types of fostering
Step Down Fostering
Providing a loving home for a child moving from residential care.
Step Down Fostering is a form of foster care where a child who has previously been living in residential care makes the transition into a family environment.
Sometimes family-based foster care is not the most suitable living situation for a young person in care. There may not have been a fostering family available to them where they live, or they may need more intensive support in a residential environment, which has its own unique routines, expectations and boundaries. If the young person makes positive progress, it may be that living with a foster family is the right next step for them to make, which can make a substantial impact on positive outcomes in their future.
Like entering care for the first time, children who leave institutional care to enter family-based care experience a massive change; it is important that Step Down Care is managed sensitively and carefully by local authorities in collaboration with experienced foster carers. This specialist form of fostering is highly rewarding as young people start to develop strong, positive relationships and attachments within a family unit.
Step Down Fostering:
- Helps young people who have lived in institutional environments to develop a strong sense of self, resilience, and positive self-esteem.
- Goes hand in hand with a high level of support from our Social Work and Education services to monitor the stability of the transition from residential to family care.
Bridge to Belonging
Step Down Fostering is a complex and unique journey which requires a special kind of foster carer with the knowledge, experience and time to be there through the extremely rewarding highs, as well as the bumps along the way.
We know from experience, that with the right support in place, we can make this journey a positive one.
That’s why we’ve developed Bridge to Belonging – an enhanced one-year package of support which recognises the commitment we need from our foster carers to give these children a bright future.
Bridge to Belonging covers a number of stages, all aimed at supporting you, and the young person, every step of the way.