The Insider’s Guide to Foster Care

A lived-experience guide to supporting young people in foster care, from authors who've been there themselves.

The ideal blend of first-hand experience and psychological theory, this essential guide shares what children and young people in care really need parents, carers and professionals to know about foster and kinship care.

Navigating foster care can be overwhelming for everyone. There are thousands of books offering professional opinions on how to be a good foster carer and provide therapeutic support for children in care, but what about asking the young people who've been there?

This essential guide brings the voices of care-experienced authors to the forefront, sharing their first-hand knowledge and advice for making a real difference. From big-picture concepts like understanding healthy relationships to more practical things like scrapbooks as physical ways to hold onto happy memories, the authors discuss what really matters to children and young people in care. They explore how their previous experiences and their carers' approaches affected the way they felt and reacted during their time in care, providing vital context for carers and professionals.

Led by personal experience, this book tells you what care-experienced young people really need you to know.