Emergency fostering

What is emergency fostering?

Sometimes, a child will need to enter care, or change foster homes, with very short notice. We need foster carers who will commit in advance to being available. Typically, an emergency arrangement will last 72 hours, although we might ask you to extend that. Emergency fostering is, as the name suggests, often needed with little warning, and outside of normal working hours.

These fostering arrangements happen in urgent situations, such as:

• A child being removed from danger at short notice
• A crisis in the birth family (e.g. illness, arrest, or domestic violence)
• No other placement being available late at night or over a weekend

What emergency foster carers provide:

• A calm, reassuring environment when everything feels uncertain
• A safe place for a child in crisis to feel secure, even just temporarily
• Warmth, kindness, and comfort during what may be one of the hardest moments of their life

How does the process work?

You contact GCC each Friday to let them know about your availability for the following week. The out of hours provision is from 5pm-9am weekdays, and from 5pm on a Friday until 9am on a Monday if it is over the weekend (or Tuesday if it is a bank holiday).

For each night you state you are available, you will be paid a retainer. GCC has increased its retainers to £45 per night if you are willing to take children aged between 0 and 1 7, and £20 per night if your preference is for children aged 0 to 9. If a child is placed with you then you will receive the full payment and allowance payments instead, which are higher.