Foster care is a term used to describe when a child is living and looked after by a family which is not their own. The child may be put into foster care because their own parents are not able to look after them. There may be several reasons why this may happen. The parents may be very ill or unable to control their own lives, perhaps because of alcoholism or drug addiction. They may be in prison or the children may be threatened with violence in their own home. Children are put into foster care so that they are safe and can live a more normal life in someone else's home.