Looked After Children Support

Working with Looked After Children (LAC) is something of a passion of ours at JSA. We have a commitment to doing all we can to providing life-changing care and support to these young people, their families and their support workers.

Many local authorities and private agencies do a great deal of work to support Looked After Children across the length of their time in care, but there is still much more that can be done via the implementation of therapy and related intervention; both for the child and for those who care for or foster them.

Therapy can be of huge beneficial support to Looked After Children and can really support the formation and development of a bond between the child and parent/ carer, as well as relationships within the wider family and community.

Whilst the foster parents or carers may have been given detail, information and background on the child they are welcoming into their home and family, it is likely that other adverse developmental factors may have gone unaddressed. As a result, coping and even bonding with the child can be difficult owing to the behaviours that the child may present. Parenting on its own presents enough challenges but caring for Looked After Children is more intensive again.

A highly effective way that JSA can support Looked After Children and their foster parents or carers is via our Parent Child Relationship Therapy (PCRT). This therapy has been implemented at JSA in order to allow foster parents/ carers to utilise skills to support the children in their care that are similar to the ones our therapists practice. The sessions of the programme we deliver are an hour in length, following which we encourage our clients to hold a special 30 minute playtime session with their child each week at home. The programme as a whole takes place over a structured 10-week course. It’s a fantastic programme of therapy which allows our foster parents/ carers to build positive attachments with their children, and indeed allows for the children in turn to develop positive attachments with others.