Connected person foster care enables you to care for a child you already know—such as a relative, family friend or someone—when children’s services arrange the placement. Learn what approval involves and how you could provide a familiar home.
Partnering with an
Ofsted Outstanding Provider
A connected person foster carer can help a child retain important relationships, routines and parts of their identity during change. Familiarity may make everyday experiences, such as school preparation and family contact, more understandable, while clear boundaries provide the safety children need.
By offering consistent care, listening carefully and responding to individual needs, you can help a child rebuild confidence and develop belonging. Keeping promises, recognising achievements and making space for the child’s views can all reinforce trust.
The role can also bring purpose to family life, while requiring patience, openness and cooperation with professionals and birth relatives. With appropriate guidance, training and ongoing support, connected person fostering can help you provide a stable foundation for a child’s future.
Connected person fostering can lead households to review how everyday tasks are divided. Adults may agree who manages school arrangements, appointments, activities and communication with professionals. Clear roles reduce confusion and help the child experience consistent expectations across the home.
Caring for a child known to the family can change how people talk and listen. Household members may become more aware of the need to use clear language, allow extra time for responses and check that instructions have been understood. These habits can support more respectful conversations throughout family life.
As carers learn how to respond to behaviour, manage routines and raise concerns, they can become more confident in making day-to-day decisions. Confidence does not mean handling every situation alone; it includes recognising when advice is needed and using the agreed support around the placement.
Connected person fostering can build practical skills in observation, record-keeping, de-escalation and constructive problem-solving. Training and professional discussions can help carers understand how a child’s experiences may affect behaviour, while keeping responses focused on safety and individual needs.
The experience may prompt relatives to think more carefully about identity, loyalty, contact and the effects of family change. Honest conversations can help adults recognise different viewpoints, protect the child from adult disagreements and make decisions that keep the child’s welfare central.
Connected person foster care is an arrangement where a child is placed with someone they already know, such as a relative, family friend or another person with an established relationship with them. The child remains looked after by the local authority, while the connected person foster carer provides day-to-day care under an agreed plan.
Children’s services normally identify a potential connected carer when a child needs a placement and complete an assessment before approval. This includes suitability checks, references, household and home assessments, health information and consideration of the carer’s ability to meet the child’s needs. Where a placement is needed urgently, a local authority may use a Regulation 24 arrangement, known as temporary approval, while the fuller assessment continues.
Approved carers receive preparation training and guidance on safeguarding, children’s development, managing behaviour, family contact and working with professionals. A supervising social worker or another member of the fostering team provides ongoing support, and an allowance is generally available to help meet the costs of caring for the child. Connected foster care is different from a child arrangements order or special guardianship, which change the legal basis of care and have separate assessment and support arrangements.
Placement planning should consider school, health appointments, hobbies and important relationships, balancing continuity with safeguarding. The child’s wishes and needs inform decisions, alongside practical household arrangements and support networks.
Usually, the child’s social worker or local authority fostering team invites you to express interest. They explain the application route, provide forms, and confirm next steps for assessment and approval.
Assessment usually involves detailed interviews, household discussions and evidence about your relationship with the child. The assessor considers strengths, risks, support needs and whether approval conditions are appropriate and proportionate.
Duration varies according to the child’s care plan and legal circumstances. Some placements remain temporary while assessments continue; others last longer, until reunification, another order or adulthood, depending on circumstances.
Connected person foster carers can make agreed day-to-day decisions, receive relevant information, attend reviews and contribute to plans, but usually do not hold parental responsibility unless separately granted by order.
Connected person foster care may suit adults who are asked to care for a child already known to them, whether the proposed arrangement is planned, urgent, short-term or likely to continue while children’s services assess the child’s longer-term needs.
You may be considered when a grandchild, niece, nephew, cousin or another relative cannot remain safely at home. Connected person fostering allows you to provide day-to-day care while the local authority remains responsible for the child’s looked-after status.
A child may be placed with you because you already know them through a close family friendship or long-standing connection. Your existing relationship can help the child adjust to living away from their parents, provided you can meet their needs and work within the agreed care plan.
Connected person care can sometimes involve an adult known to the child through their wider community, such as a neighbour, faith group or another consistent support network. The relationship must be sufficiently established for children’s services to consider you a suitable placement option.
You may be assessed when children’s services need to decide what care arrangement is right for a child. This can apply where the child needs a familiar home while their circumstances, family relationships and longer-term plans are considered.
A connected placement may be appropriate when separation from parents, changes in living arrangements or concerns about safety have disrupted the child’s routine. Caring for them in a known household can help preserve important relationships while professionals coordinate the next steps.
This type of fostering may suit someone who can support appropriate contact, follow safeguarding arrangements and share information with social workers and other professionals. Cooperation is important where family relationships are complex or the care plan changes over time.
You will receive guidance and ongoing support throughout connected person fostering, helping you understand decisions and move forward with confidence.
Approval involves assessment by the fostering service, checks, references, preparation training and a fostering panel recommendation. A temporary Regulation 24 arrangement may begin while assessment continues, subject to required safeguards.
Financial support takes the form of a fostering allowance, with rates set by the responsible fostering service and reflecting the child’s needs. Ask what expenses, payments and tax guidance apply.
Contact arrangements are agreed through the child’s care plan, considering safety, wishes, court directions and family relationships. Keep records of visits, share concerns promptly, and follow professional guidance when circumstances change.
Allegations are managed under safeguarding procedures: the fostering service assesses concerns, protects the child, informs relevant agencies, and supports your cooperation while enquiries proceed. Avoid investigating allegations yourself without guidance.
Keep clear, dated records of significant events, decisions, appointments, medication, education, accidents and concerns. Record factual observations, preserve relevant correspondence, and share information securely with the fostering service as requested.
If you have been asked to care for a child you know, our team can answer questions about connected person fostering, explain the next steps and help you consider your options without obligation.