What is the difference between fostering and adoption?

When you adopt a child, you become their legal parents; when you foster a child, you’re working with your local authority to take care of them in your home, whether that be short or long term. Long-term fostering can often provide a permanent home for a child like adoption can, but you would be a carer, not a legal parent. In some cases, a foster carer may go on to adopt a foster child but this is not the norm.