Fostering & Adoption East Lothian

Our vision is for every child to be part of a family where they are safe, loved and nurtured. Information about fostering or adopting with East Lothian.

Caring for East Lothian’s Children

If you interested in fostering or adoption, and live in or around East Lothian, then we are waiting to hear from you.

What is Fostering?

Foster carers look after children who are, for whatever reason, unable to be with their parents or family. Some children stay with foster carers for a few days or weeks while others stay for months or even years.

Foster carers work alongside children’s parents and help them during times of family difficulties. That might mean ensuring the children see their parents regularly or might be about helping the child’s parents to be the best parent they can be.

Foster carers work alongside the child’s social workers, health visitors, school to ensure the child is safe, well cared for and helped to achieve his or her best.

Foster carers are paid a weekly fee for the work they do and an allowance to cover the day-to-day needs of the child.

Some foster carers foster one child at a time while others foster up to three children at a time.

Foster carers have continuous training during their time as foster carers.

About the children

Children of all ages need foster carers, although the greatest need is for carers able to look after school aged children or brothers and sisters, so we can keep them together.

Full time and part time fostering

Many foster carers look after children full time but we also need foster carers who are able to support children living at home through offering regular short breaks, perhaps for a few days each week or each month.

We also need respite foster carers who can offer a few weeks foster care each year to support another family who are fostering full time - so they can have planned breaks to recharge their batteries.

Permanent fostering

Some children are unable to return to their family and need foster carers to look after them permanently. Permanent foster carers build lifelong relationships and help the child grow into adulthood. Generally, the child’s parents stay in touch with the child and remain part of their lives.

What is Adoption?

Adoption means that parental rights and responsibilities switch to the adoptive parents and adopted children become part of their adopted family for life.

Many adopted children live with temporary foster carers until it becomes clear that their birth family are permanently unable to look after them. A few children are adopted because their birth parents have decided they are not able to be parents at this time.

Some adoptive parents foster their child for a while until the plan for adoption is confirmed.
Some adopters agree to keep in touch with the child’s birth family, so they can hear how the child is doing from time to time.

Support is available after adoption if necessary.
Adoptive parents can choose to get involved with local support groups and activity days with other adopters.

About the children

Most adopted children are of preschool or early primary school age, but there is no upper age limit if adoption is right for the child. We especially need adoptive parents who can adopt brothers and sisters and keep them together as a family.

Who can Foster or Adopt?

Foster carers and adoptive parents can be married, unmarried but living together in a committed relationship or single people. Some have children already and some do not.
You need to provide suitable accommodation for the child or children and can be living in mortgaged or rented accommodation or be a home owner.

Foster carers and adopters come from all walks of life, from all ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds and we don’t discriminate on the grounds of sexual or gender orientation.
There is no upper limit age but carers and adopters do need to be healthy and energetic enough for the children they plan to foster or adopt.

Foster carers ideally need to have experience of looking after children or other people’s children. Foster carers work with parents and a range of professionals involved with the child, so they need to be team players.

Adoptive parents might not have direct experience of parenting but should be able to show they understand about children’s needs and that adoption is for life.

Adoption is a legal process and as it can take time, you need to have patience and be able to live with a degree of uncertainty for a while.

Learning about fostering and adoption

Before formally applying to foster or adopt we provide a series of preparation group meetings designed to help you understand what is involved with fostering /adoption.