Everything You Should Know About Parent and Child Fostering in Eastbourne
Not many people have heard about it, but parent and child fostering, also commonly known as mother and baby fostering, is a special kind of foster care that typically involves caring for a vulnerable parent and their young child.
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In this blog post, we will cover everything you need to know about parent and child fostering in Eastbourne.
What Is Parent and Child Fostering?
Parent and child foster care involves supporting and looking after either a vulnerable parent or an expecting mother and her child. Mostly, it is the mother, rarely the father, and occasionally both.
On the one hand, it is about monitoring a young person or adult, while on the other, it is about supporting a young person who may have been in care, have been a victim of domestic violence, or lack self-confidence. In addition to this, many of the parents have usually never experienced a nurturing and caring childhood themselves, affecting their ability to care for their own children. Thus, needing the support to learn and become a good parent.
These are just a few of the many reasons why somebody would become part of a parent and child foster care.
How Do Parent and Child Foster Placements Work?
Parent and child foster placements typically last for around 12 to 20 weeks, with a focus on helping the parent develop the awareness, skills, and confidence to nurture, feed, and care for their child.
The role is in high demand, and as placements usually last for short periods, you can easily support someone and their family for a few weeks and then take a break before returning again. You can view parent and child fostering as a bit like having a mother, aunt, or other relative coming over and staying to help with the children – except it’s a hands-off role – parents must learn to do the job of parenting themselves.
Parent and Child Fostering Assessments
Quite often, local authorities like East Sussex County Council evaluate young or new parents' parenting ability regarding the care they’re providing to their child. Hence, during the parent and child’s stay with the foster carer, regular assessments are conducted. The foster carer has a big role to play in observing and monitoring parenting skills.
We believe that by offering solid support at the beginning, it is usually possible to alter negative experiences into positive ones for both the parent and the child. Parent and child foster care can greatly help ensure that social services would not be needed later in their lives.
Many people have misconceptions about parent and child fostering - in fact, very few people know about it. However, the reality is such programmes are solely for the well-being and benefit of the parent and their young child. Moreover, it is not just about teaching parenting skills or undertaking boring assessments; parent and child foster cares in Eastbourne can really be quite fun. For example, the foster carer can take the parent to visit the famous Eastbourne pier or take them out for cycling on the Cuckoo’s Trail. The ultimate goal is to ensure that both the parent and the child are happy and healthy.
So here's the thing...
We're looking for eagle-eyed team players to specialise as parent and child foster carers. We need more people just like you who can be there to nurture and support parents at risk of family breakdown.
We look forward to hearing from you.
