£25m boost to foster care support and recruitment from 2026-28

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The money was announced in the government’s spring statement last month, when the Treasury said it would be used to recruit a further 400 fostering households.

Further details were provided last week by children’s minister Janet Daby, in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon.

Daby said the money would be available over two years – 2026-27 and 2027-28 – and was also designed to fund peer to peer support for foster carers, as well as bolster recruitment.

The funding builds on £36m allocated from 2023-25 by the previous government and £15m for 2025-26 provided by the current administration to tackle shortages in England’s fostering capacity. There was a 10% drop from 2021-24 in the number of mainstream foster carers – a category that excludes kinship carers approved to look after specific children.

Investment in regional fostering schemes

The investment to date has been designed to roll out regional fostering recruitment and retention programmes, set up by clusters of local authorities. These comprise three elements:

1. A fostering recruitment support hub, providing an information and support service to help prospective carers from their initial enquiry to making an application.
2. A communications campaign to drive interest in fostering across the region and increase the number of enquiries received by the hub.
3. Expanding the ‘Mockingbird model’, developed by the Fostering Network in the UK, under which “constellations” of fostering households provide mutual support to one another, led by an experienced carer who provides a ‘hub home’ for the others. A 2020 evaluation of the scheme for the DfE found that households who participated in Mockingbird were 82% less likely to deregister than households who did not.

In her answer to Gordon, Daby did not confirm whether the £25m for 2026-28 would provide further funding for these regional programmes or a different purpose.

Foster carers ‘lack authority to take decisions’

Alongside the increased investment, the DfE is also planning to enable foster carers to take more day-to-day decisions about children in their care.

Currently, a child’s placement plan must set out where authority to make decisions has been delegated from parents and councils, where they share parental responsibility, to carers, in relation to matters including healthcare, education, leisure, home life, faith and social media use.

Statutory guidance states that foster carers should have delegated authority in relation to day-to-day parenting decisions, but the Fostering Network has warned that this is not borne out in practice.

The charity worked with Green MP Ellie Chowns to table an amendment to the current Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to give foster carers delegated authority over these decisions by default.

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Pledge to reform delegated authority rules

Though this was not accepted by the government, it has pledged to consult on amending the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, which set out the current rules around delegated authority, to achieve the same result.

In her response to Gordon, Daby said: “The department has also begun conversations with the sector about proposed changes to delegated authority, ensuring that all foster carers have delegated authority by default in relation to day-to-day parenting of the child in their care.”

The minister added that the DfE was “committed to improving practice and guidance” in relation to the handling of allegations against foster carers, which she said was “a key contributor to high levels of…deregistration”, but did not set out further details.

Fostering body urges greater focus on retention

Daby’s statement came as fostering information service Foster Wiki released a report about carer recruitment and retention, based on analysis of data and its research with carers.

While praising the DfE’s investment in regional recruitment hubs as “a crucial and commendable step” in addressing fostering’s workforce challenges, it called for a sharper focus on retention to prevent experienced carers from leaving the sector.

This should include greater professional recognition of foster carers, backed by ongoing training and nationally recognised qualifications, a remuneration system based on skills, specialism and experience, and an independently managed allegations process, with representation and advocacy for carers.