Interested in fostering?
Submit your contact details using the button below and a member of the team will be in touch.
You can also call us on 0300 1312797.
Fostering involves giving a safe and caring family home to a child (or children) aged 0 to 18 who cannot live with their parents. This could be for several reasons. The care you provide is temporary until the child returns home or lives independently.
As a Bracknell Forest foster carer, you'll give children positive life experiences. You'll offer them support, guidance, care, patience, and empathy. All the ingredient they need to thrive.
Take a look at the different fostering options we offer - come and be part of our team.
Short term
Short-term can mean an overnight stay to a period of several months or years.
With short term fostering, the plan is to try and return the child or young person in your care to their own family. If this is not possible then we will look for longer term plan.
Long term
Some children cannot return home to their own families. With older children, adoption may not be appropriate.
Long term fostering means giving a child a safe, secure and stable home to thrive in to prepare them to live independently.
Part-time
Part-time fostering is a flexible way to support children and families.
Respite
Respite fostering involves supporting other Bracknell Forest foster carers. Respite means caring for a child for a short period of time, such as a weekend, on a regular basis.
New carers start with respite placements to gain confidence and often go onto other types of fostering.
Days out and short stays
This type of fostering (also known as short-break care) supports families of children with additional needs or disabilities on a regular, pre-planned basis. For example a day or a weekend a month.
This is a flexible option for people with less time, but who still want to support children and families. You become an extended member of a family that needs time to rebalance and reconnect and so keep their family strong.
Children seeking refuge
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are young people who have travelled to the UK alone, often fleeing war. They are typically adolescents who need support to adjust to life in the UK.
For more information, visit our page about children seeking refuge.
Parent and child
Not all parents have extended family and may need extra help to care for their child safely. A parent and child foster carer offers temporary support and advice until the family can return home and other support is put in place.
For more information, visit our page about parent and child fostering.
Supported lodgings
Supported lodging provides a home environment to young people aged 16 to 18 years.
As a supported lodgings carer, you'll help develop the practical skills and emotional maturity they need to move on to independent living. The young person is usually in full time education, employment or training.
Emergency care
Emergency foster carers need to be available outside usual working hours to provide a home for a child on a temporary basis. This is usually for up to 10 days.
Connected care
Connected carers are people raising relatives or friends’ children so they do not enter the care system or get placed for adoption.
Arrangements are made under a Special Guardianship Order. For more information, visit our page about special guardianship.