Short term placements may last a few days but can continue for up to about two years. You’ll be asked to provide a safe and secure home environment for a child to live in, while Children’s Services work with the child’s family and work out a long-term plan. At the same time you and Children’s Services will help the child understand what is happening, and find out what they need to grow up safely.
The aim of a short-term placement is to help the children return home to their own family or, if this is not
possible, to support them to move on to a permanent placement - either an adoptive family or long term foster carer. We try to place children in a planned way s that you will have lots of information about them before you meet them. However, sometimes children need to be placed in an
emergency in order to make sure that a child, who may be at risk of harm, is in a safe place.