Fostering is a family endeavour and birth children (adults and young people) provide a lot of support to fostered children and can help them adjust to their new environment.

Some children and young people may have come from an abusive background. Seeing the interactions between parents and birth children can help show how parents/children relate to one another when there is no abuse.

Birth children can also become mentor figures, modelling positive behaviours and attitudes, and can help to establish relationships with children as peers and friends.

How do birth children benefit from sharing a home?

• They can learn about the life experiences of other people which can help them to be more empathetic, insightful and supportive of other people.

• Through exposure to different backgrounds and concepts of discriminations and equality.

• Through developing relationships with others.

• They often have the opportunity to be a sibling in a different way than in their family of origin.

• They can develop skills and talents they might not have been aware of through their interactions with the children their family care for.

Do birth children receive any support from us?

Birth children are included in support of the family and they are invited to children's group agency events and activities. We also ask for their views about how fostering is affecting them.

Are birth children involved in the fostering assessment?

Any assessment needs to consider birth children and, (remove the comma) the impact fostering might have on them. The assessor should meet with all birth children (even adults) and speak to them as part of this process.

During the assessment, we help them think about what might be hard for them and what positives fostering might bring, who they should go to if they are not happy and who else they may meet during the assessment process.

Do we consider the needs of birth children when we match our looked after children?

When matching placements we consider the age, gender, stage of development, any needs they may have and any activities birth children may be involved in.

The needs and risks associated with particular foster children must be considered in light of the children who live in the home already.

Do we hold any events and activities that include birth children?

All children in the household are invited to our events. Previously this has included Summer trips to the coast, bowling, Christmas events and competitions.