Protective Care

Children in foster care may have lived through neglect, abuse, trauma, separation, moves or other adverse childhood experiences. These experiences can affect how they understand adults’ words and actions, how they trust, and how they respond to risk.

Protective Care helps foster carers think about each child’s lived experience and needs, not just about general rules. It supports a nurturing and protective approach that helps children feel physically and emotionally safe, build trusted relationships, repair, recover and thrive.

We cannot remove all risk from everyday life. Trying to do so can prevent children from learning, developing independence and building their own understanding of how to stay safe.

Protective Care is about being risk sensible, not risk averse. This means understanding the risks involved in a particular situation, making well-thought-through decisions with others in the team around the child, and avoiding a one-size-fits-all set of rules.

What risks should foster carers consider?

Protective Care asks foster carers and the wider team to think about sources of harm and risk in a child-centred way. These may include:

• Everyday accidents and hazards in and outside the home.
• Risks from other people, including known or unknown adults, young people or groups.
• National, global and online risks, including exploitation, trafficking, county lines, radicalisation and risks linked to apps, the internet and social media.
• Children and young people’s trauma-related behaviour that may affect their own safety or the safety and wellbeing of others.
• Specific needs linked to learning, development, health, disability or neurodivergence.
• Prejudice, discrimination and racism, and the impact these can have on a child’s identity, safety and wellbeing.

The aim is not to make children’s lives smaller. It is to understand each child’s strengths, vulnerabilities and past experiences so they can be supported to feel safe, develop resilience and take appropriate risks as part of growing up.

Protective Care introduces three linked plans that should be woven into everyday practice:

Fostering Family Protective Care Plan – a plan developed by foster carers and members of the household, with guidance from the supervising social worker, to think about family behaviour, routines and norms and how Protective Care will become part of everyday life.

Child’s Protective Care Plan – an individual plan for each child, informed by their lived experience, strengths, needs and any known or emerging risks. This should be developed and reviewed with the team around the child.

Allegation Plan – a plan made in advance so the fostering family and support network know what practical and emotional support may be needed if an allegation is made. This helps ensure plans are not made in crisis.

These plans should not be completed in isolation. They should be developed with guidance from your supervising social worker and, where relevant, the child’s social worker and others in the team around the child.