Emergency care may be needed in situations where a child initially or suddenly enters the care system. They may have been removed from the care of their family due to high concerns for their welfare and protection. Emergency care may also be required where an existing placement breaks down and a child needs to be moved quickly.

Emergency foster care is short term, typically lasting up to 72 hours. Emergency fostering is very important as it allows for a child’s essential needs, which include a safe home and a sense of security and reassurance, to be met during what can be a very difficult and uncertain time for them.

With this type of fostering, placements are of a short term nature. Being flexible in responding to placement requirements as they arise, which by nature is quite suddenly, is an important trait of emergency foster carers. As emergency foster care placements are not predictable, as such you may not have a placement for a period of time and in other cases you may have multiple placements over a short period of time.

Orchard provides an On-Call service to our foster carers during weeknights and on weekends. When Tusla requires an emergency placement, they contact Orchard Fostering, who takes the details and contacts the Emergency Foster Carer to arrange for the placement. These placements are identified and planned for when both services are operational, rather than through the out of hours process.

All supports offered by Orchard Fostering apply to each type of foster care placement, including emergency foster care./p>

If Emergency Fostering sounds like something that you would be interesting in providing to a child or young person, please contact us today by filling out form below and someone will contact you with further information.