What is fostering?

Fostering is when you look after a child who, for any number of reasons, needs someone else to look after them.

It is like parenting a birth child, in that you provide a nurturing home that enables a child to feel safe, supported, and well looked after. But there are some important differences.

As well as providing day-to-day care, foster carers advocate for the children they look after. They support their education and health and wellbeing, attend meetings, undertake training, and, if required, help the child to keep in touch with their birth family through regular meetings.

Foster care helps children who, through no fault of their own, haven’t had a good start in life. It can be very challenging, but it also one of the most rewarding things you can do. 

Our foster carers change the lives of Sheffield’s most vulnerable children by giving them the chance to be happy and thrive.