Recruiting foster carers in England

Recruiting foster carers in England is of great importance. They are greatly needed to provide children with a safe, secure and nurturing family environment.

Today, nearly 70,000 children are living with almost 55,000 foster families. The Fostering Network estimates that a further 7,200 foster families are needed in the next 12 months alone, in order to ensure all fostered children can live with the right family for them.

Foster care provides children with a safe, secure and nurturing family environment. It allows them to keep in contact with their own families if they wish, and if it is in their best interests. With record numbers of children in care, and around 12 per cent of the foster carer workforce retiring or leaving every year, The Fostering Network estimates that fostering services across the UK need to recruit at least a further 7,200 foster families in the next 12 months alone. There is a particular need for foster carers to look after teenagers and sibling groups.

Fostering services work all year round to find and recruit the foster carers they need locally to look after these children. Without enough foster families willing and able to offer homes to these groups, some children will find themselves living a long way from family, school, and friends, being split up from brothers and sisters. They might end up being placed with a foster carer who does not have the ideal skills and experience to meet their specific needs

Methodology

In order to calculate the recruitment targets, The Fostering Network uses the best available statistics and sector intelligence and makes a number of assumptions based on market knowledge.

There are three elements in the calculation: 

Replacing those who leave the fostering workforce during the year

Using the Ofsted dataset for England, we take the average percentage of the fostering workforce leaving across the previous three years. We assume it will hold for the forthcoming year and that it is applicable across the UK.

Number of children in care on any one day

The number of children coming into care has been rising in recent years. We look at the rise in the previous year in each nation according to government statistics, and, using sector intelligence about current trends, adjust this to provide an estimate for the rise in the next 12 months. 

Increasing the size of the pool of available foster carers

Fostering services continue to report that in some parts of the country there are simply no available foster carers or specific shortages of households willing/able to care for teenagers, sibling groups, disabled children, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and so on.

Previously published on the Fostering Network website.