Respite or "sleepover" care
Sometimes parents and children need a short break. When you care for a child regularly on weekends or during school holidays you give the main carer or the family a much needed timeout to recharge. Sleepover foster care might suit you if you:
- have just started fostering
- have a full-time job that is flexible that you want to continue with
- do not want to commit to full-time or long-term care at this time.
It is a really good way to start fostering. Any child or young person will be carefully matched with you, you’ll meet them and will have plenty of information about their routines, needs and interests.
As you become more experienced, you might also help with emergency fostering - this is usually short notice and unplanned, for example if a single parent needs to go into hospital unexpectedly.
For these types of care, we pay you the normal fee and allowance for a child on a "pro rata" basis. This means that you get paid for the time a child is in your care.
Short breaks schemes for disabled children
Short breaks are where you look after a disabled child to give birth families or foster carers a break from their full time caring role.
You can care for a small number of disabled children throughout the year. You can choose to provide three, four or five nights of care per week.
You earn a flat rate as well as an overnight fee.