Family and Friends fostering means that a child lives with a member of the family or with friends if they can't live at home with their birth parents. The children must be 'looked after' by the Council.
A formal arrangement
In Greenwich, Family and Friends fostering is different from Kinship Fostering. Kinship Fostering is a Greenwich scheme for children and young people who are not looked after by the Council.
With Family and Friends fostering, the child is officially 'looked after' by the local authority and the carers (even though they are family or friends) are formally considered to be foster carers.
To be a Family and Friends foster carer, you will need to be fully assessed and approved by the Council's fostering service. This process can take several months.
Please see our Process for Applying to Foster webpage for more information.
Different from mainstream fostering
The differences between Family and Friends fostering and mainstream fostering are:
- the carer is known to the child and usually to the parents as well
- the Family and Friends foster carer will only be approved to look after a specific child or children.
More security for children
Family and Friends fostering is wherever possible the preferred choice over a child living with unknown foster carers or in a residential unit.
Children say that living with family and friends helps them feel more secure when they can't live with their parents.
Support
Family and Friends foster carers receive a weekly allowance for each child that they look after. They also receive birthday, festival and holiday allowances and the support of a fostering social worker.
There are also training and support group opportunities, and links to national networks.
Further information
For more information about fostering in Greenwich, please contact our Fostering Team using the contact information in the menu to the right.
The Fostering Network on the Useful links to the right is the leading charity for foster caring the UK.
The Grandparents Plus and Family Rights Group websites in the Useful links menu to the right will take you to more information about groups and support for Family and Friends foster carers.