Practical guidance for real fostering life.

The worry that stops a lot of people enquiring is not the paperwork, it is what happens at two in the morning. Here is what the current first aid guidance actually says, and how little of it you are expected to carry on your own.

A febrile seizure is frightening to watch and almost always harmless. What is happening, what to do in the first five minutes, and the six situations where you phone 999 straight away.

Can a foster carer give a child Calpol without ringing anyone first? Usually yes. Here is how delegated authority works, what the placement plan should say about medicines, and how to give, store and record them safely.

Reading the word anaphylaxis in a child’s paperwork is unnerving. Here is what a foster carer actually needs: the action plan, the adrenaline pens, what the food labels mean, and where the support comes from.

A plain guide to caring for a child with asthma: what the two inhalers actually do, the steps that matter in an attack, and the school paperwork nobody mentions until September.

Most people’s first thought about fostering a child with diabetes is the injections. That turns out to be the easy part. Here is what the day actually looks like, what sensors and pumps now do for you, and what to do when a reading goes wrong.

Most illnesses in a fostering home are the ordinary kind. Here is what counts as a high temperature at each age, the symptoms that mean 999, how long to keep a child off school, and who agrees to treatment.

Self-harm in a young person is frightening to discover, and the first instinct is usually to do something big. What helps is quieter than that. Here is what to do in the first few minutes, who to tell, and what is worth doing in the weeks afterwards.

A young person’s eating can be the first thing a carer notices and the last thing they feel able to raise. What to watch for, how to open the conversation without starting with food, who to tell, and how mealtimes work when eating has become frightening.