News

This week the government announced a 3.55 per cent increase to the national minimum allowance (NMA) for foster carers in England. While we welcome the increased financial support for fostering families, it doesn’t go far enough to cover the full costs of caring for a child in foster care. 

We welcome the government’s policy statement ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’ and its mission to give every child the best chance in life.  There has been under-investment and lack of priority given to children’s social care for far too long, so we are pleased to see this much needed reset.

New figures show the number of people choosing to foster in England is declining for the third year running, with six per cent fewer fostering households compared to 2021.

On behalf of our members, The Fostering Network is extremely disappointed that foster carer allowances in Northern Ireland have only been increased by three per cent for 2024/25. This equates to an increase of less than five pounds per week, per child and represents  another blow for foster carers after it was announced last week that Scottish Government would not increase allowances for foster carers in Scotland during 2024/25. 

I am writing to you today, conscious of the impact that the recent and ongoing civil unrest and racist violence occurring across the UK will be having on fostering families and fostering services.

On behalf of our members, The Fostering Network is extremely disappointed to learn that the Scottish Government will not be increasing the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA) for foster carers and kinship carers this financial year, 2024-2025.  

Today our CEO Sarah Thomas gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee in the Senedd on Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill which seeks to eliminate profit from children’s social care.

Today, The Fostering Network has launched a new report in partnership with NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service) which looks at the experiences of children and young people who have grown up in foster care. The launch of ’This is My Home: Growing Up in Foster Care’ comes during Foster Care Fortnight, the UK’s biggest annual awareness-raising campaign for foster care.

More children will end up in unsuitable homes if thousands more foster families aren’t urgently recruited, according to new figures released by the UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network.

Across the UK there’s currently a shortage of 6,500 foster families – a figure which comes during Foster Care Fortnight (13 – 26 May), the charity’s annual awareness raising campaign. The numbers lay bare the recruitment crisis currently facing the fostering community as the number of children in care in the UK exceeds 100,000 (100,437) – the highest on record. 

Established in 2014, The Fostering Network’s State of the Nations’ Foster Care survey is the largest and most comprehensive study of the UK's fostering sector, representing the voices, thoughts and opinions of foster carers across the four nations.