The majority of young people for whom we are asked to find foster homes are between the ages of 7 and 15 years. They are also often the more challenging to care for because of their behaviour. Therefore, we need to recruit foster carers with this in mind.
Sometimes younger children are referred to us, particularly when there are 2 or 3 brothers or sisters who need to be placed together.
The children and young people living with our foster carers are there for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes their parents' difficulties have been so great that they are unable to look after their children until they get themselves sorted out. The problems may be due to illness, bereavement, relationship difficulties, mental health problems or addictions to alcohol and drugs. Or else the child is not able to live with their family because of the risk to their safety from somebody there. Sometimes they have been abused.
There are many different reasons. Every child is different and their circumstances are never the same. However, we can say that these experiences will have affected every young person in some way, some more than others. These effects will often be reflected in their behaviour. They will often find in hard to trust adults and they will rarely have stopped all contact with their family. This is the challenge for our carers, to care for someone else's child, like they would their own.
