Why do a mother and baby need support?

There can be a number of reasons why a parent and child/mother and baby cannot remain in their own home and need to move into a setting where they receive support from a specialist parent and child foster parent. Some parents may have no experience of parenting and need to learn parenting skills in a supportive environment. Some parents may have self-care issues or needing a place of safety away from their partner or other family members.

Other reasons may be to do with a parent having a learning need or disability or they may have struggled to parent safely previously. In many cases, the parent may be young and from a care back ground themselves and need the support of a foster parent to help teach and support them with safe and consistent parenting skills. Some parents may have had a child or children removed previously due to abuse, neglect or parental substance abuse.

At By the Bridge we strive to keep children with a parent wherever possible, therefore our parent and child service is designed to support vulnerable parents who need additional support to parent. Assessments of parents are carried out by a qualified social worker and parent and child foster parents support this process by keeping daily records of observations that are used by the social worker to evidence progress, change or challenge for the parent. 

Who can become a parent and child foster parent?

To qualify to become a parent and child foster parent you need to have a home of your own, this can be rented or owned and have a spare room big enough for a bed, cot and wardrobes etc for the parent and child. Parent and child foster parents can be married, cohabiting or single, but one of the foster parents needs to be at home full time to support and supervise the parent at all times.  This doesn’t mean you can’t go out and about and live a normal life, but you do need to be available and make some changes to your lifestyle for the period of time the parent and child are living with you. 

Parent and child fostering is time limited with a parent and child being placed from 12 weeks to a longer term if the parent needs more support. However, this is usually for younger parent’s who need time to develop parenting skills to parent on their own in the community. 

If this is something you would be interested in pursuing please get in touch with us and a member of our team would be happy to provide you with more details.     

If you think Parent and Child Fostering could be for you, Contact Us to find out more.