Parent and child fostering

There is an increasing need for parent and child foster carers in Lancashire and we need more foster carers who are willing to take on this type of fostering. Parents live with their children in a foster carer's home. This enables them to stay together and develop a strong relationship at a crucial developmental stage in their lives.

As a parent and child foster carer you will support and offer guidance to the parent to develop their parenting skills in a natural, warm and nurturing family environment. Parent and child foster carers do not just look after a 'mother and baby'. This type of fostering can involve supporting a mother, brothers and sisters, father and child or mother, father and child.

If you are interested in fostering a family, we have specialist parent and child staff. They will assess you and help you prepare to care for children and their parent(s) together in your home.

Allowances and support

Parent and child foster carers provide a home for both the parent and their child. There are enhanced allowances to reflect the specialist skills needed by our foster carers. Some examples of how this may look are:

• Amina and Bilal care for a parent and child who are both looked after.

  They receive £1,662.36 per week.

• Cath is caring for a parent who is under 18 and is looked after. Their child aged 0-4 is not looked after.

  She receives £1,054.97 per week.

• Helen and Peter are caring for a parent who is not looked after. Their child aged 0-4 is looked after.

  They receive £1,054.97 per week.

• Grace is caring for a parent and child who are not looked after. They have short breaks or staying put plans.

  She receives £1,054.97 per week.

Additional annual payments are made for holiday, birthday and religious festivals.

We offer additional support to parent and child foster carers including:

• Specialised training

• Access to our Fostering Academy

• A buddying system with another experienced parent and child foster carer

• Increased visits from your own social worker and/or support worker

• An out of hours' advice line which is answered by a qualified social worker

Thanks to the hard work of the foster carers and parents, many of our parents and children have been supported to remain together and move onto living in their own homes within their local communities.

Becoming a parent and child foster carer for Lancashire means that you can help our most vulnerable children and support local families to remain together.

If you can provide warm and supportive care to a local child and family, foster with us, we would love to hear from you.

You can also learn about other types of fostering.