Welcome to our pages for Children in Care

These pages are for:

• People entering the care system.
• Their families.
• Their friends.
• People working with them.

Our aim is to provide information about:

• What being 'in care' or 'looked after' means
• Who cares for looked after children 
• Where they might live
• Where they'll go to school
• Who is available to help them.

Being 'Looked After'

Children and young people become looked after when their parents can't care for them at home.  This is also called being 'in care.' 

Reasons why children can’t  live with their families:

• Their parents can’t care for them for a time. This could be because of illness, family breakdown or behavioural difficulties.
• Social Workers remove them from their families. This might be because they are being hurt or because their parents aren't looking after them properly.
• The courts say that they can’t live at home because they have been breaking the law.

Anyone, from any background, who is aged from 0 to 18 might need to be cared for outside their family home for a period of time. This could be for a few days, a few months or longer. Sometimes all the children in a family need to be cared for, wherever possible they will all be cared for at the same place.

Who cares for Children in Care?

As a Child in Care you might live in a Foster Home.  This is where one or two carers look after you as a member of their family.

An alternative is Residential Care. This means living with a group of other children in care. You will be cared for by Residential Workers - people employed specifically to work with, help and support children living in groups like this.