Children in care: what are the types of placement during care proceedings?

by Ridley & Hall in Care Proceedings & Adoption, Child care, Children, Natalie Stephenson-Quayle posted February 22, 2021.

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More and more children go into care each year for a variety of reasons. This can be due to neglect, substance abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse or other reasons. According to The Fostering Network on 31^st March 2019 around 78,150 children were in care, with 72% of these children living with foster families.

When children go into care, sometimes they are taken away from their family. There are two types of placement during care proceedings:

Foster Placement
Family Placement

A foster placement is where the child/children are removed from their family and placed with a foster family. This generally happens when the parent(s) are unable to take care of their children and they don’t have any family members to put forward who are capable of looking after them. It may be that they do not have any family members to put forward for assessment. However, if they do have family members to put forward, a Viability Assessment will be undertaken. This looks at whether they are able to take care of the child/children to a sufficient standard and protect them from any harm. Sometimes when a family member undertakes a viability assessment it comes back negative, this is because they are not deemed sufficient to look after the child and therefore, the child/children will be placed into foster care. The foster carers are given an allowance to help pay for the child’s needs, for example, food and clothes. There are around 44,450 foster families in England.

If a family placement is possible, this is much more preferable for the child/children. This is where the child/children will be placed with other family members so they are not in a completely new environment. The family members putting themselves forward will have to undertake a viability assessment to see whether or not they are able to sufficiently care for the child/children before they are moved into their care. For the child to be placed with a family member, they will need a positive viability assessment. In 2019, 16% of placements offered were family placements.

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