Fostering
Fostering is caring for someone else's child in one's own home – providing family life for a child who, for one reason or another, cannot live with his or her own parents, either on a short or a long term basis. Foster parents/carers provide a stable family environment, nurturing the child to help him or her develop and succeed.
There are a wide range of reasons a child may not be able to live with his/her own family: for example, bereavement, illness or family breakdown. In some cases a child or young person may be removed from their family for their own safety.
Out of home care in Ireland is provided either in residential units or by foster carers in their own home.
Ireland has had a long history of foster care, with over 90% of the children in care at present being in foster care. Approximately 32% of these foster carers are relative carers.
There are different types of foster care and foster parents/carers come from all walks of life.
There are 5,338 children under the age of 18 in the care of the HSE.
4,700 of these children are in foster care, 410 in residential care with the remainder in other placements.