recruitment and retention

Project overview

The Foster Carer Retention Project aimed to support fostering services to:

• capture all of the reasons why foster carers leave their fostering service
• identify the optimum timings for processing exit interviews
• identify any themes as to the reasons why foster carers choose to leave
• create a robust process for future exit interviews

• embed learning to enhance retention and subsequent recruitment of foster carers.
   

Free resources

Needs analysis template

Created by the Department for Education and The Fostering Network, the needs analysis template is the starting point for all fostering services to inform a recruitment and retention strategy. 

Needs analysis template

Benchmark reports

The Fostering Service Benchmark report 2015/16

The fostering service benchmark reports, carried out over three years, provide statistical insight into the performance of fostering services in England. The information within the reports can be used by any service to compare performance against national averages for recruiting and retaining foster carers.

England

Transfer of foster carers protocol England

Principles governing the transfer of foster carers

Recruitment is a year-round activity and fostering services need to recruit to replace foster carers who are leaving the service for many different reasons.

Foster care provides children with a safe, secure and nurturing family environment, and 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 13 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 9,300 foster families in the next 12 months alone. There is a particular need for foster carers to look after teenagers and sibling groups.