Long overdue Government recognition of foster care

Following the publication of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England in May 2022, the Government have released their long-awaited strategy for the reform of children’s social care: Stable Homes, Built on Love.

The UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network, welcomes the £25 million investment for the retention and recruitment of foster carers over the next two years. Foster care for too long has been overlooked and underfunded even though foster carers provide stable and loving homes for 70 per cent of children in care. This investment needs to be seen as a starting point to address the issues facing the sector.

Today the Government has also made a historic decision to apply an above inflationary increase of 12.43 per cent to allowances for foster carers. This follows the charity’s ‘The Cost of Fostering’ campaign, which calls for the allowances to cover the full cost of caring for a child. 

The Fostering Network are delighted that the Government have listened and recognised the real dilemma many foster carers face with financial security which has been further exacerbated with the cost-of-living crisis. This will make an immediate difference to children and young people in foster care.

Jacqueline Cassidy, director of practice at The Fostering Network says: ‘We welcome this focus on fostering which comes at a vital time, as over the past year we have lost more foster carers than we have gained. 

It is essential we have a diverse and stable foster care workforce, who provide a unique form of care for children unable to live with their birth family for as long as they need. Foster care allows children to grow up in a nurturing family home and stay within their local community so they can remain connected with everything that is important to them.

This announcement will put practical and financial support in place to retain and attract highly skilled foster carers, which the report describes as the “bedrock of the care system”. 

We fully support the Government’s vision of placing love and stability at the heart of children’s social care but to make this a reality, the investment needs to go much further to achieve whole system reform.’

The Government have also announced plans to further embed the Mockingbird model in the North East of England, with the intention of rolling it out on a wider scale in order to support stability for children and retention of foster carers. Mockingbird is a global, award winning and pioneering programme led in the UK by The Fostering Network. 

This investment demonstrates recognition of the transformational effect Mockingbird has on the lives of children and young people and the foster carers looking after them. 

Someone who has first-hand experience of the difference the Mockingbird model makes is Olivia, who has been in foster care for the past five years. Olivia explains that her foster carers and people she’s met through Mockingbird help her to feel ‘accepted, listened to and loved – like being part of a family.’ 

Government have also committed to introducing legislation to extend Staying Put to support young people up to the age of 23 which is welcome but needs to be properly funded to ensure more young people are able to remain with their foster families. 

This package of support and investment is a welcome starting point for fostering. Going forward as the strategy is implemented, the voices of foster carers and children and young people in foster care need to be at the heart of any decisions made about them. 

For further information or interview requests, please email media@fostering.net or call 020 7620 6441.