Page Contents
Short term
Long term
Young refugees
Parent and child
Supported Lodgings
Short breaks
Mockingbird Programme
Emergency foster carers
Fostering and Adoption
Other types of fostering
Short term
From an overnight stay, to a period of several months or years. Short-term foster carers look after children until they can return home to their own family, or a longer-term plan can be made.
Long term
Children may not be able to go back to live with their own families for a number of years, if at all. These foster carers support and care for children on a long-term basis until they become adults.
Young refugees
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), who have travelled to the UK alone, often come fleeing war and persecution. They need support to adjust to life in the UK. Foster carers will receive extra training and support to meet the needs of these children.
Parent and child
Sometimes we have to assess a parent's ability to look after their baby or young child. During this time the parent and child will live with you. Parent and child foster carers offer support and advice to help the parent(s) care for their child(ren) whilst a parenting assessment is completed. The foster carer's comments and records will help professionals to reach a decision on the parent's ability.
Supported lodgings
Our Supported Lodgings scheme provides young people who are aged 16 to 25 and in care or who have recently left care with a place to live. You can work full-time as long as you still have time to support the young person to gain skills for independent living.
Short breaks
This offers disabled children different experiences while still living with their family. A child might stay with a Short Breaks carer for one or two nights a month. The child being cared for under the Short Breaks scheme may have a physical or learning disability, and will be carefully matched to the Short Breaks carer.
Separately, Surrey County Council Short Breaks Services provide essential support to children and young people with disabilities and their families. These services offer positive experiences for the children, helping them make friends, build confidence, and improve their emotional and physical health. For parents and carers, Short Breaks offer a much-needed respite from their caregiving duties, allowing them to focus on their own wellbeing and spend quality time with other family members.
Mockingbird Programme
Mockingbird hub home foster carers offer planned and emergency sleepovers and short breaks for other foster families. They also give advice, training, and support to other fostering households.
The Mockingbird programme aims to increase the strength of fostering households and improves the relationships between carers, children and young people, fostering services and birth families.
Find out more about becoming a Mockingbird hub home carer.
Emergency foster carers
Emergency foster carers need to be available outside of usual working hours to provide a home for a child on a temporary basis. This is usually for up to 10 days.
How Fostering and Adoption work together
When a child is unable to live safely with their birth family, local authorities have a legal duty to safeguard their wellbeing. This often involves placing the child in care, either with a foster carer or a family member, while the Court decides on their long-term future.
From Foster Care to Adoption
If it becomes clear that a child cannot return home or be cared for within their extended family, the Court may issue a Placement Order. This legal order allows the child to be placed with an adoptive family. At this stage, the child’s social workers begin the matching process, carefully selecting adopters who can meet the child’s needs and provide a stable, loving home.
Once a match is made, the child is supported to move in with their new family. Social workers continue to offer guidance and support during this transition to ensure the child settles well. After a minimum of ten weeks, the adoptive family can apply to the Court for an Adoption Order, which grants them full parental responsibility.
What is Foster to Adopt?
Foster to Adopt is a child-focused approach that bridges fostering and adoption. It allows children to be placed with carers who are approved as both foster carers and adopters, even before the Court has made a final decision about adoption.
Initially, the child is cared for under fostering regulations. If the Court later grants a Placement Order, the carers can go on to adopt the child—meaning the child remains with the same family throughout. This reduces the number of moves a child experiences and supports early bonding and emotional stability.
Foster to Adopt is considered when:
- A child is unlikely to return to their birth family
- A baby’s parents have requested adoption
- A baby’s parents are in care themselves
- A child is joining siblings already placed for adoption
Understanding the Legal Process and Risks
While Foster to Adopt offers many benefits, it also involves some uncertainty. The Court must ensure that birth parents and extended family have every reasonable opportunity to care for the child. In some cases, a relative may come forward late in the legal process, and the local authority must explore this option.
Prospective Foster to Adopt carers are fully informed of these risks and supported throughout the process. Many adopters feel that the opportunity to provide a child with stability from the very beginning is worth the uncertainty.
Why Foster to Adopt Matters
Foster to Adopt gives children the chance to start life with their permanent family as early as possible. It avoids the disruption of multiple placements and helps children form secure attachments during a critical stage of development.
If you’re considering adoption and are open to the Foster to Adopt route, the Adoption South East team can guide you through the assessment and approval process.
Foster to adopt aims to reduce the number of moves a child might have before they are legally adopted. The child or children are placed with carers who have been approved as both foster carers and adoptive parents. The child is initially cared for under fostering regulations. When the child is ready to be adopted, they will remain with the same family and the status will change from foster carers to adoptive parents.
If you are interested in foster to adopt, please contact the adoption team as you will need to be assessed and approved as an adopter.
It is helpful to seek legal advice, to help you understand the implications of an adoption order. Coram Children's Legal Centre is one example of where legal advice can be sought. Where legal advice is not free, you must fund this yourself.
Other types of fostering
Kinship Carers/ Connected persons / Family and friends fostering
'Connected persons' or family and friends' carers, also known as kinship carers, look after a child who is related to them or with whom they have a close relationship. We will always try to support a child or young person in care to live with a family member or friend wherever this is possible. They will need to be approved as a foster carer.
Special Guardianship
Special guardianship is a court order that gives you parental responsibility for a child or young person and allows them to live with you permanently.
The child can still have a relationship with their parents, where possible.
Being a special guardian means that you will have parental responsibility for the child, giving you the right to make decisions about the child's care and upbringing.
Special Guardians in Surrey can access free support and training, through Kinship Charity, and if you think you may be eligible for additional please email sgo.postordersupport@surreycc.gov.uk.
Private fostering
If you are providing care for a child aged 16 or under, to whom you are not closely related, for more than 28 days, you need to notify the Children's Single Point of Access (C-SPA) If you are unsure if you have a private fostering arrangement, please reach out with your questions to private.fostering@surreycc.gov.uk
Find out more about what to do if you are caring for somebody else's child through a private arrangement.