What is the difference between fostering and adoption?

Home / Blog / What is the difference between fostering and adoption?

by Katie Wright | 1st Jun 2021

Fostering and adoption are very different, the main difference is that when adopting a child, the adopted parents take full legal responsibility of the child as adoption is a permanent solution.

Fostering is a way of offering children and young people a home while their own family is unable to look after them. Fostering can be a temporary arrangement, and many children in care return to their own families. Some children are unable to return home but still want to maintain contact with their families often live in long-term foster placements. Foster carers never have parental responsibility for a child that they care for.

Adoption is a way of providing a new family for children who cannot be brought up by their own parents. It’s a legal procedure in which all the parental responsibility is transferred to the adopters. An adopted child loses all legal ties with their birth parents and becomes a full member of the new family, usually taking the family’s name.

Due to the differences in fostering and adoption, you will need to think very carefully whether it is fostering a child or adopting a child that you would like to do.