Foster Care Fortnight: The Power of Relationships
One of the most powerful tools in a child’s recovery from trauma is the quality of the relationships around them. For children in care, that relationship is so often with their foster parent. It’s a role that is both incredibly challenging and deeply honorable—and it cannot be overstated how vital it is to support foster parents as they take on this responsibility.
This is why we believe foster parents should be fully included in any therapeutic journey their child undertakes—whether that’s play therapy, therapeutic life story work, or other interventions aimed at exploring and healing emotional and behavioural difficulties. Their role is not peripheral; it is central.
Foster carers hold an extraordinary and complex position. They are asked to:
Stay calm and regulated in the face of overwhelming emotions (often directed at them),
Meet both physical and emotional needs consistently and compassionately,
Navigate emotionally charged times like birthdays, holidays, and contact with birth families,
Collaborate with social care teams to make critical decisions,
And above all, remain the steady, empathetic, and dependable adult every traumatised child so desperately needs.
It is no small task. It demands resilience, compassion, and a deep commitment to relationship-based care.
This Foster Care Fortnight (12th–25th May), The Fostering Network is shining a spotlight on the Power of Relationships—a theme that could not be more relevant. We encourage you to explore their campaign and resources on their website.
Relationships have the power to heal—but they also, tragically, have the power to harm. Many children in care carry wounds from relationships that were meant to protect them. That’s what makes the fostering relationship so profound: when done with care, consistency, and empathy, it becomes the very thing that helps a child trust again.
In a world where trauma often begins in relationships, it’s also within relationships that true healing can begin. Let’s support foster carers to be those healing connections.
The Power of Relationship