Fostering Glossary

Care Order

A Care Order may be granted (by the Courts) if it is considered unsafe for the child to live at home or there is a requirement for an enhanced provision of care.

For children taken into care, the HSE is responsible for key decisions about the child's welfare and who they live with. The HSE can then place a child or young person with a foster carer registered with them, or registered with a non-statutory agency. They also control who the child has contact with.

Fostering

Fostering is a way of providing family life for someone else’s child in your own home when they are unable to live with their birth family.
Fostering placements can be short term or long term, lasting for days, months or years. Many children return home to their birth families, but others may receive long term support, either through continued fostering, residential care, or by being helped to live independently. Learn more about fostering.

Fostering Fees and Allowances

Fostering fees/allowances are provided to cover living costs and offer a reward element in recognition of the demands of becoming a foster carer. FFI's fostering fees/allowances take into account the professionalism and significance of the role that foster carers play in the lives of children and young people in care. Learn more about fostering fees and allowances at FFI.

Foster Carer/Foster Parent

Foster Carers play a vital role in providing a safe, secure and stable fostering environment for someone else’s child when they are unable to live with their birth family.

FFI foster carers encourage positive and bright futures for children and young people in care. Learn more about becoming a foster parent.

Non-statutory fostering agencies

Non-statutory fostering agencies, like Fostering First Ireland (FFI), work in partnership with the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide placements for children and young people in care. Learn more about non-statutory fostering agencies.

Health Service Executive (HSE) (and the role of the HSE in fostering)

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is the legal guardian of any children and young people in care. HSE’s place children and young people into care using their own foster carers and foster carers registered with fostering agencies (such as FFI). Learn more about FFI's relationship with the HSE.

Children in care

This is the term used to describe children and young people who are placed into foster care who are between the ages of 0-18.

Placements

This is the term used to describe placing children and young people into fostering families. FFI has over 75 fostering families currently registered with us and over 80 looked after children and young people in placements.

Respite placements

Respite involves children living with foster carers having short stays with another foster family to give their family/main carers a break. This can last for a weekend, one week or two weeks. Read more about support for our foster carers at FFI.

Separated Children Seeking Asylum

FFI has developed, in partnership with the HSE, a specialist fostering service for Separated Children Seeking Asylum (SCSA). These children often arrive in Ireland have fled conflict, oppression, danger and abuse. They are in need of foster carers who are equipped and supported to meet their emotional needs as well as their cultural and religious needs. FFI has recruited foster carers who are dedicated to offering care to such children. Read more about the different types of placement at FFI.

Team Parenting™

FFI's Team Parenting™ model of fostering 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. Learn more about Team Parenting™.

Would you like to join FFI and become part of Ireland's unique approach to fostering? Simply fill in our carer recruitment form and we'll get back to you shortly, or call us on 1850 211593.