Fostering, kinship care and adoption
Fostering and kinship care
Foster care is a key strength within the range of services available for children who need to be looked after and has the potential to deliver a broad spectrum of support to children and families.
Fostering is currently defined (in the 1996 Fostering Regulations) as ‘arranging for a child to live as a member of the family of a person who is not a parent and does not have parental responsibilities for the child’. This definition will be updated to include the new permanence orders that will be brought in as part of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.
It can include:
- providing planned short breaks for a child or young person
- providing immediate but temporary care for a child or young person with the aim of supporting them to return permanently to their birth family or to move to a permanent substitute family; to support throughcare or aftercare arrangements in residential care; or to support them in transition to independent living
- providing specialist care, for example intensive fostering for young people with behavioural problems as an alternative to secure care
- providing a permanent substitute home for a child who cannot return to live with their birth family, by means of a permanence order or other legal provision.
Fostering is provided by carers who have been approved by a fostering agency registered with the Care Commission and are inspected against the National Care Standards. Such agencies include local authorities, voluntary sector providers and independent providers.
National fostering strategy
The Scottish Government published a national fostering strategy in December 2007, which puts the needs of the child at its heart and outlines the support that foster and kinship carers should receive.
There's more about the strategy and the progress towards its recommendation in our Getting in Right for Every Child in Fostering and Kinship Care page.
Adoption
Adoption is a legal process which replaces a child’s birth parents with new adoptive parents.
Children who are adopted will almost always have been looked after children, except where a step-parent adopts the child(ren) of their partner or in the case of intercountry adoptions from outside the United Kingdom.
Adoption services are regulated by the Care Commission.
Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007
The majority of the Orders and Regulations required to give effect to the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 have now completed their passage through the Scottish Parliament.
See Implementation of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 section of Improving adoption policy for further information.
Related links
National Care Standards
The standards for residential and foster care services.
British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) Scotland
Advice, information, training opportunities and resources for members of the public and professionals involved in adoption and fostering in Scotland.
The Fostering Network
Information about projects, advice and services run by the Fostering Network in Scotland.