Fostering in Ireland: Different Types of Foster Care

When it comes to foster care, no two children are the same. Some may need foster care for a few nights, while others will need a more permanent family environment for weeks, months or even years.

That is why we offer a range of placement types and encourage our carers to be as flexible as possible to meet the unique needs of children in care.

If you have any questions about fostering in Ireland, simply click here and get in touch.

Emergency placements

Occasionally, a child or young person will need somewhere to stay at a moment’s notice. This can be for a number of reasons and may only last for a few nights.

Short term placements

Short term placements can last for anything from days to weeks or even months. Short term placements can be made for a variety of purposes, such as for the completion of an assessment.

Our short term placements benefit from the same excellent support services as our standard placements.

Long term placements

Long term placements are suitable for children who need permanent foster care and involve caring for a young person until they can live independently at the age of 18 years. These children or young people cannot return to live in their own home but will often still keep in regular contact with their birth family.

Respite placements

Sometimes children need to stay with a different foster family to give their permanent carers a break. These are regular placements and usually last for a weekend, one week or a fortnight at the most.

Parent and child placements

Could you provide support, guidance and a safe environment for young people in State care who are pregnant or have a baby? Parent and child placements involve foster carers supporting young mothers and/or fathers to develop their parenting skills. We provide additional training for foster carers who offer this type of placement.

Parenting assessments

Some of our more experienced foster carers have undertaken specialist training to enable them to provide parenting assessments. These are highly structured, closely monitored placements that involve the foster carer working as part of a professional team to formally assess and provide a detailed report of a young person’s parenting ability.