Fostering in crisis: can flexible care models fix England’s child placement shortfall?
Summary
England faces a decline in foster care households, with fewer people becoming foster carers and many current carers being older. The government is launching a national campaign to recruit 10,000 new foster carers and is trying flexible caring options to encourage more people to help vulnerable children.Key Facts
- Since 2021, the number of foster care households in England has dropped by 10%.
- More than one in three foster carers are now aged 60 or older.
- A government campaign aims to recruit 10,000 new foster care places by the end of the current parliament.
- The campaign targets adults in their 30s and 40s, encouraging them to foster children in need.
- New foster care options like weekend-only or short-term respite fostering are being tested to make fostering easier.
- Over 500,000 adults want to foster and about 3.4 million are interested, according to research by the Coram Institute for Children.
- Fostering is the most common form of care for children in England, with about 56,400 children currently in foster families out of 81,770 in care.
- The government wants to avoid more children living in residential care or far from their home communities.
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