Fostering

Counselling and therapeutic help

Key findings

Foster carers, social workers and others often provide very valuable informal 'on the spot’ support to children by listening and talking to them. This can also help them to engage with formal counselling.

As Farmer and her colleagues (36) point out, counselling for young people can be important. When Sellick and Connolly (32) evaluated one independent fostering provider they stated that:

'Children were provided with regular therapy sessions, had their educational needs championed by an educational liaison officer and could meet their family and friends in a well-equipped contact centre.'

What we know from research

Findings from the SCIE Knowledge Review 4 (1) suggest that substantial developments have taken place: children and young people are receiving additional educational support, counselling and psychotherapy, and their carers are also receiving specialist help. Foster carers themselves are happier when the children and young people they are looking after receive these services.