What Makes Community Foster Care Different? Inside Our Therapeutic Approach
In our latest Ofsted report Community Foster Care was rated as an Outstanding fostering agency in all areas, and one of the themes that came up repeatedly was our therapeutic approach.
‘The innovative way that staff apply the therapeutic model to children’s care is worth of wider dissemination and is making an exceptional difference in children’s lives.’
It’s something we’re immensely proud of and have worked hard over the years to embed into everything we do. But what does ‘Therapeutic Approach’ actually mean?
Let’s find out!
Fostering is one of the most rewarding roles a person can take on — but it’s also one of the most complex. Children who enter the care system often carry deep trauma resulting from abuse, neglect, disrupted early relationships, and instability. Their experiences shape how they see the world, how they respond to stress, and how they form relationships.
That’s why fostering isn’t the same as parenting your own children — and why a therapeutic approach is essential. As the name suggests, it takes elements from well-researched and tested therapeutic theories and adapts them to help carers better support young people when they come into their homes.
At Community Foster Care (CFC), we are a trauma-responsive organisation. We believe every interaction is a chance for connection, healing and learning. Our approach goes far beyond traditional fostering models; it’s rooted in understanding that behaviour is communication, and that children’s early experiences must shape the way we care for them.
Parenting Differently: The Heart of Therapeutic Fostering
Children in care have had a very different starting point in life — often at the most critical stages of their development. Their behaviours, emotions and reactions have been shaped by survival. Therapeutic fostering recognises this and asks adults to meet children where they are, not where we expect them to be.
We encourage our community to stay curious — about themselves, about each other, and about the children they support. This reflective culture allows foster carers to better understand emotions, triggers, relationships and patterns of behaviour so they can respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.
Our core principles guide everything we do:
Psychodynamic understanding
Therapeutic parenting across our community
Critical reflection
Collaborative, relational practice
Trauma-informed care
What Makes Us Different?
We’re proud to say that CFC isn’t just another fostering provider — we’re a charity on a mission, and we embrace a bold, creative “pirate” spirit that challenges the status quo in children’s social care.
We use the phrase “Community Fostering” to describe the way we work — a therapeutic approach embedded in everything we do. It’s about ensuring that every person involved in a child’s care is working towards the same aims and following the same guidelines on how to manage different situations.
We’ve designed three levels of Community Fostering. offering tailored support based on each child’s individual needs:
Community Fostering
Structured Community Fostering
Bespoke Community Fostering
This framework allows us to meet children exactly where they are — with the right support, at the right time.
Every level of Community Fostering is therapeutic, but the support packages vary depending on a child’s circumstances, history and needs.
Our Therapeutic Community: A Network That Holds Everyone
Fostering can be challenging, and no one should have to do it alone. That’s why we cultivate a strong therapeutic community around every foster carer. This network offers:
Emotional resilience
A sense of belonging
Shared understanding
Structured reflective spaces
Our carer support groups and reflective sessions give carers the chance to explore the feelings and experiences that naturally arise in fostering. Many say this community support is what helps them keep going — and keep growing.
A Culture of Reflection
Everyone in our community is encouraged to be curious about their own life experiences, patterns and stories. Understanding ourselves helps us understand others — and this insight becomes an essential tool for navigating the challenges of fostering.
By asking questions like “What’s your story?” and “What shaped you?” we deepen our ability to respond compassionately and effectively to the children we care for.
Trauma-Informed Practice: Supporting Healing, Avoiding Harm
Becoming a trauma-informed community is an ongoing journey. It requires cultural humility, awareness of how trauma shows up in behaviour, and thoughtful consideration of how our environment, communication and systems affect others.
We work closely with psychotherapists and multidisciplinary professionals to ensure the “team around the child” is aligned and connected. Supporting children with complex histories isn’t always easy — but when the network works well, the impact is life-changing.
Loving, Secure Attachments: The Foundation of Healing
At the core of our approach is a belief that children need — and deserve — loving, secure, family-based attachments. We ask our foster families, including birth children, to invest emotionally and genuinely in these relationships. Healing can only happen when children experience consistent, authentic care.
Research and experience both show that safe, nurturing relationships can help rewire the brain after trauma. As the saying goes: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”
Our Community Values
As a therapeutic community, we aim to:
Stay curious
Reflect critically
Work collaboratively, even when it’s challenging
Be creative and take thoughtful risks
Promote equity, diversity and inclusion
Maintain high professional standards
Empower people to make decisions
Because we believe, wholeheartedly, that it takes a community to raise a child.
If you’d like to be part of our community and help us continue providing Outstanding care to young people in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, please get in touch to find out more.
