Long-term fostering involves providing care for a child or young person until they reach the age of 18 (and beyond, under a Staying Put policy).
The local authority will seek to match the child or young person (and their siblings if appropriate) with foster carers who are willing to make a long-term commitment to caring for them, and can meet their current needs and those likely to arise in the future.
Long-term fostering provides stability for children who cannot return to their own families, or where other types of permanent care, (such as special guardianship, kinship foster care, or adoption) are not suitable.
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Before a long-term fostering agreement is reached, the fostering service and local authority may have a 'matching meeting' and arrange introductions between the foster carers and the child. Sometimes, existing foster carers may wish to put themselves forward as the long-term carer of a child or sibling group already in their care. In these circumstances, the matching process will still apply, and it may be necessary to change the foster carer's terms of approval to include long-term fostering. This may impact on other types of fostering that the foster carer is approved for.
In long-term fostering arrangements, the child will still be considered 'looked after' by the local authority, and there will still be social workers involved, but there are likely to be less frequent reviews and visits to the home, compared to short-term fostering arrangements. Foster carers in long-term arrangements may also be given increased delegated authority to make more day-to-day decisions for the child. As with all fostering relationships, however, parental responsibility will be held by the local authority and birth parents.
It's important to remember that any child or young person in a long-term fostering arrangement will continue to have a care plan. Foster carers considering long-term fostering need to be aware that, over time, this care plan could change to include circumstances that could not have been foreseen at the time of long-term matching (for example, children returning home or moving to live with extended family).
