Caring for a child in foster care: practical guides

These guides are for the everyday questions that come up once a child has moved in: a hard evening, a worrying cough, a call from school, a question about their mum. They draw on the training our carers use and are checked against current guidance.

Feelings and behaviour

• When a Foster Child’s Behaviour Is Hard to Handle: What Actually Helps
• Helping a Foster Child Through Anger: What to Do in the Moment
• Understanding Trauma and Attachment: How Foster Carers Help a Child Feel Safe
• Therapeutic Parenting and PACE: What It Actually Means for Foster Carers
• Helping a Foster Child Manage Anxiety: What Actually Helps
• Supporting a Grieving Foster Child: What Actually Helps
• Supporting a Foster Child’s Mental Health: What Actually Helps
• How Foster Carers Help a Child Build Emotional Resilience
• Communicating With a Foster Child: What Actually Gets Through
• When a Foster Child Tells You Something
• When a Child in Your Care Lies or Steals
• Therapeutic Play in Foster Care: What You Can Do at Home
• Caring for a Child Who Has Lived With Domestic Abuse

Health

• First Aid for Foster Carers: What to Do If a Child Is Hurt or Unwell
• When a Child in Your Care Is Unwell
• Giving a Foster Child Medicine: What You Are Actually Allowed to Do
• Fostering a Child With Allergies and Anaphylaxis
• Fostering a Child With Asthma
• Fostering a Child With Diabetes
• Febrile Seizures: What to Do When a Young Child Has a Seizure With a Fever
• Supporting a Young Person Who Self-Harms
• Supporting a Young Person With an Eating Disorder
• Food, Mealtimes and Fussy Eating in Foster Care
• Bedwetting and Toilet Problems: What Actually Helps a Foster Child
• Sleep and Bedtimes in Foster Care: What Actually Helps

Additional needs

• Fostering an Autistic Child: What Actually Helps
• Fostering a Child With ADHD: What Actually Helps
• Fostering a Child With FASD: What Actually Helps
• Fostering a Child with OCD: What Actually Helps
• Fostering a Child with a Learning Disability
• Fostering a Child With a Disability or Additional Needs
• Child Development in Foster Care: What to Expect and When to Ask

School and growing up

• Promoting a Foster Child’s Education: What You Can Actually Ask For
• How Foster Carers Support Children at School
• Helping a Child Stay at Their Own School and in Their Own Community
• When a Foster Child Is Being Bullied: What Actually Helps
• Preparing a Foster Child for Independence: A Practical Guide for Carers
• Helping a Foster Child Through a Move: What Transitions Really Involve

Identity, family and rights

• Life Story Work: Helping a Child Understand Their Own Past
• Family Time: What Contact With a Child’s Birth Family Really Involves
• Fostering a Child From a Different Cultural Background
• Fostering a Child of a Different Faith to Your Own
• Talking About Racism With a Child You Foster
• Supporting an LGBTQ+ Young Person in Foster Care
• Children’s Rights in Foster Care: What a Child in Your Home Is Entitled To

Staying safe

• Online Safety and a Foster Child: What Actually Works
• Child Exploitation and County Lines: What a Foster Carer Can Actually Do
• Knife Crime and Gangs: Talking to a Teenager You Care About
• Drugs, Alcohol and a Teenager in Your Care
• Gambling and Gaming: What a Foster Carer Can Actually Do
• Worried a Young Person Is Being Drawn Into Extremism?