Fostering is rarely easy, but some children in particular bring with them daunting problems.

Nick Morrion talks to a foster parent willing to take on children who are sexual abusers.

AT first glance it may seem that Dave is taking cautious parenting too far: 11-year-old Sean can play out on his own, but only if he stays within sight of the house; he can't go over to play at his friends' houses, although his friends can come to his; and if he wants to take part in any activities after school, Dave has to go along as well. But Dave is not the over-protective parent, unable to give Sean his freedom. Instead, there are very good reasons for this strict - and unbending - regime.

Sean arrived at the house shared by Dave and his wife Maureen last October, the second child they had taken in under a highly specialised scheme. The Barnardo's Genesis project aims to find foster families for children who have sexually abused other children. It's a task few people are willing to take on - and adds a new dimension to bringing up a child.

"On a day-to-day basis it isn't an issue. He has all the needs of any other kid, but he does have this extra baggage he brings with him, which has got to be dealt with," says Dave, 37. "Sometimes weeks go by and you haven't done any kind of Genesis-thing with him. On the other hand, there are times when he asks if he can go and sleep over at his friend's and the answer has to be no.

"You have to keep your eye on the ball. It is saying he can ride his bike, but he has to say in sight of the house, and he can't go round to his friend's house - it is those kinds of issues you have to work through. There are lots of things these kids can't do, but you still have to give him as normal an upbringing as possible, balancing the fact that he is a risk to others, and other people are a risk to him."

Sean was referred to the Genesis project, one of the few of its kind in the country, after he sexually abused a younger cousin. In a grim but inevitable cycle, he had himself been abused by an older relative. Genesis, which covers the North-East, has placed 15 children with foster families in the six years since it was established.

Vicki Conway, in charge of the Genesis project, says as well as the foster placements, children are given specialist therapy, aimed at preventing a reoccurrence of their abusive behaviour. She says all children are assessed to see if they are suitable for fostering, Most of those fostered are boys, and the youngest so far is just six years old. They know of only one who has gone on to re-offend.

'They do have particular needs, but it is important that they're seen, first and foremost, as children, with the same needs as other children," she says. Children are only placed with families where there are no other children at home, and initially are supervised 24 hours a day. Schools are told of the child's background, but there is generally considered no need to tell anyone else.

But the nature of the child's background inevitably means few couples are willing to come forward.

"We try to get over the reality of what it means, and the reality is they're children like any other children, but they're children who have had a particularly difficult start in life. They need the opportunity to experience positive family life," Vicky says.

"They're likely to be difficult in terms of keeping to boundaries; it's likely they're going to have difficulties at school, both in learning and behaviour; they'll probably have difficulty in relationships, and they can be quite isolated. It is difficult, but there are rewards, and the most basic one is knowing that you're giving a child a chance."

Dave and Maureen were one of the first couples to come forward, after Dave spotted an advert in the paper. After they were approved as foster parents, they were put through a training course aimed specifically at coping with child sex abusers, before they fostered their first Genesis child, 14-year-old Paul. Dave gave up his job to become a full-time foster carer.

"Yes, you are going into a difficult situation, but you are going into it armed and with your eyes open," Dave says. "It kind of touches on the motives of why you would foster: the kids who go into fostering are often going to be difficult kids anyway. At least with Genesis you know a little bit more about what their problems are.

"We didn't particularly set out to foster kids that had sexually abused, because that side of it isn't wonderful, but it is a chance to do a bit of good in the world. Often kids who are abused go on to become abusers, and if you can take a few of them out of the cycle it is all to the good."

Paul, their first placement, had displayed inappropriate sexual behaviour, and Dave and Maureen found that one of their major tasks was to try and influence his view of what was right and wrong. "He had a fairly skewed set of values, of what was acceptable and what was not," Dave says. "He would tell you lies with a straight face and he was very streetwise but he could also be very immature. Sometimes he was 14 going on 25, sometimes he was 14 going on eight.

"You try to get across that it is ok to have a girlfriend, and to bring her to the house for tea, but it is inappropriate to do something when she is not happy with it."

After about two and a half years, when Paul turned 16, he moved out and is now able to hold down a full-time job and a flat - a source of immense satisfaction to Dave.

"The rewards you get are through the shift in values: if he wants money, he knows he has to go out and work for it, and for some of these kids that is a huge thing. It is making them aware that there is a choice; you don't have to be the person you start out as.

"You don't change them, that is probably too strong a word, but you have influence, you can push them to achieve more than they would otherwise have done."

And since Sean's arrival in October, Dave and Maureen have already seen changes in his behaviour.

"He is not a nasty kid, he is just a very loud and silly kid - he is like an eight-year-old, but he is very compliant and easy to influence, much more so than the first one," Dave says. But what links Paul and Sean is they were both loners and had difficulty relating to children their own age.

"The biggest difficulty these kids have is they are very socially isolated: they don't have a great group of friends, if they have any friends at all. They relate well to adults and to younger kids, but not to their peers," Dave says.

"We are giving them stability, which is something they haven't had before, and trying to help them relate to other people. You are taking a kid who has not had a great start in life, and starting them on a ramp towards being a well-adjusted adult. You might not get them all the way to the top, but you get them part of the way.

"The easy solution would be to lock them in a cupboard, but that is not doing them any favours, and it is not doing any favours to the world at large."

* Some of the names in this article have been changed.

* For more information on the Genesis project, contact Barnardo's on 0191-240 4836.