Exploring Team Parenting™
The introduction of the Team Parenting™ model of fostering has been one of the most influential changes to the shape of foster care in Ireland.
The success of Team Parenting™, in delivering positive outcomes for even the most difficult to place children and young people, has achieved its highly acclaimed reputation with our Health Service Executive partners.
How Team Parenting™ works
The Team Parenting™ model draws together a range of qualified professionals from different fields to form a multi-disciplinary team, aimed at addressing the child or young person’s therapeutic needs.
- An assigned Therapist plays a pivotal role in coordinating a joint effort by this team
- A Team Parenting™ meeting may be held to discuss a child or young person’s needs prior to/at the commencement of a placement
The Team Parenting™ team
The Team Parenting™ team may consist of:
- Foster Carer
- Therapist
- FFI Social Workers
- Support Workers Service
- Education Liaison Officers
- Life Story Workers
- Health professionals
- HSE Social Workers
- Local office staff
- Other foster children
- Birth Family (and any significant others)
At FFI, our experience has proved that the smallest specialist intervention from one of these professional support services can make all the difference to a placement.
The role of the fostering family in Team Parenting™
FFI foster carers have the vital role as ‘agents of change’. By this, we mean that the fostering family itself has an extended responsibility to deliver the therapeutic teachings directly to the child or young person.
- Team Parenting™ support services are not intended to replace foster carer’s responsibilities; they extend and enhance them.
Therapeutic Fostering
Team Parenting™ is often referred to as Therapeutic Fostering. This explains the joint approach to creating a therapeutic environment for the child or young person within their own family environment.
By addressing a child or young person’s feeling or anxieties, Team Parenting™ professionals work hard to ensure that issues from the past are not transferred to the detriment of a child or young person’s future placements. With this in mind, a Team Parenting™ placement is not just to benefit the stability of a placement; it increases the level of attachment between the child or young person and their carer.
Foster Carer FAQs
Would previous convictions prevent someone from fostering?
A previous criminal conviction would not necessarily disqualify you from fostering; it would depend upon the nature of the conviction and when it occurred. It is standard for us to check Ga... read more
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