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Just as no two children are the same, foster carers need to come from a variety of backgrounds and have different life experiences, skills and qualities to help meet the needs of children and young people in foster care. What's important is that you can support, nurture and care for children who cannot live with their birth families.
In general, you can apply to be a foster carer if you:
Every 20 minutes another child comes into care needing a foster family in the UK.
The reasons children come into care vary widely, including a parent’s short-term illness or another temporary problem within the family. Some children may have witnessed domestic violence or a parent’s depression or drug or alcohol abuse. Others may have been abused or neglected. Each child’s circumstances and needs are unique.
Every year, tens of thousands of children and young people across the UK need foster carers while they can’t live with their birth families. This means that thousands of new foster families are needed every year. Foster carers can make a real difference to children's lives - and that's a hugely rewarding job.
The local authority will be required to evidence that each staying put arrangement meets ‘basic standards’. It is the local authority’s responsibility to provide (whether directly or through commissioned services) support to both the young person and to the former foster carers. This includes foster carers approved and supported by independent fostering providers. The levels of support to be provided should take account of the individual circumstances and needs.
Click on the links below to be taken to the relevant section for your question. Have you got a question that isn't answered? Drop an email to info@fostering.net and we'll do our best to answer it.
We are pleased to share that the new edition of The Skills to Foster will be available in 2024. It includes a new focus on equality, diversity and inclusion, and expanded content on child development, trauma and therapeutic approaches to fostering.
This new edition will be accessible via a learning management system, designed to support services and foster carers to access the resource in a variety of ways.
By listening to and working with our members we create vital change. We influence fostering policy and practice at every level and campaign to ensure foster care is the very best it can be. We also raise the profile of fostering and challenge the myths and stigma surrounding care. Join our membership to become a part of the UK's largest fostering community. Read more about the benefits of membership below.
In general, any individual in England who wishes to be registered to care for four or more unrelated looked after children is required to register as a children’s home. Registration as a foster carer usually limits the number of unrelated children who can be cared for at any one time to three.
