Pathfinding: New Short-Term Fostering Service
What is the Pathfinding Short-Term Fostering Service?
The Pathfinding short term service will offer 4–12 week, supported fostering care placements for young people who need an immediate, solo, stabilising care experience. This may be due to a breakdown, or disruption in their existing care arrangements.
This service will blend structure and routines, planned and unplanned support with the warmth of a family placement.
How will the pathfinding service differ from other fostering services?
Pathfinding placements be will short, mission driven from the outset and time limited. The focus of carers will be on establishing safety and to support young people through a period of transition. This service is time-limited by design.
Be part of a supportive team.
Carers will be supported by a multidisciplinary team, including a social worker, therapeutic practitioners, education support and 24-hour on-call help – so no one is doing this alone.
A Role with Purpose.
Carers will receive a generous allowance to reflect the commitment and dedication they will bring to this role. If you are purpose-driven, have experience in care, teaching, nursing, or strong life experience and resilience, we’d really like to hear from you.
Register Your Interest
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Having a spare bedroom is a requirement to foster. If this is not the case for you at this stage, you can still submit your details for an info pack but you wouldn't be able to progress at this stage.
Pathfinding Short-Term Fostering Service. More detail:
- The Pathfinding Short-Term Fostering Service has been created to provide a focused and supportive environment for young people who maybe experiencing disruption or instability in their current care arrangements.
- The service offers placements lasting between four and twelve weeks and is specifically designed for situations where a young person requires an immediate, solo placement that allows them time and space to stabilise after a breakdown or significant difficulty in their previous living arrangement.
- During this period, the priority is to create a safe, calm and supportive setting where the young person can recover emotionally and practically while professionals carry out the assessments needed to understand their long-term care needs.
- This approach to foster care differs from traditional long-term fostering focuses on belonging, continuity, in that it is time limited and purpose-driven from the outset. Its central aim is to provide young people with stability during a transitional period, helping them regain a sense of safety while understanding what they require next. The placements are built around a blend of structure, routine and responsive support, delivered within the warmth of a family home.
- To support this highly focused period of care, Pathfinding carers are linked closely with a multidisciplinary professional team. This includes a supervising social worker, therapeutic practitioners and residential outreach workers.
- These professionals work together to ensure that carers receive practical guidance, therapeutic insight and hands-on help whenever required. Carers participating in the service are based close to existing residential child care services,
- Pathfinding Short-term Fostering Service offers young people a safe and carefully supported period of transition. It ensures that they, and the professionals who support them, have the time, space and clarity needed to make well-informed decisions about their future care arrangements. Helping to ensure that each young person can move forward into a care arrangement that is carefully matched to their needs and supports their long-term wellbeing.
Hear directly from our foster families:
“Fostering is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Seeing them laugh and shine despite their past? Nothing beats it.”
– Vicki, Foster Carer
“The wee one came home with a dancing medal like she’d won the Olympics. That joy? It makes everything worth it.”
– Steve, Foster Carer
“At first it was scary, but now it feels like home. Lesley is like a mum, sister and best friend all rolled into one.”
– 'V', Young Person in Care
“We love it and can’t imagine doing anything else.”
– Foster Family