The government says it wants to fix fostering. Again.
This week’s pledge – £88m, a national recruitment drive, and promises to “modernise” the system – sounds familiar because it is.
For more than a decade, successive governments have announced plans to attract foster carers while quietly avoiding the harder question: why so many are leaving.
The numbers tell the story. England has lost thousands of foster carers over the past decade, with more households quitting than joining.
Councils say they are struggling to keep experienced carers, particularly those looking after teenagers with complex needs.
Recruitment campaigns don’t plug a leaking bucket.
Ministers insist this time is different. The children’s minister, Josh MacAlister, talks about reforming outdated rules, opening fostering to younger and more diverse households, and strengthening regional hubs. All sensible.
But none of that answers the question foster carers keep asking: how are we meant to afford to do this? Because fostering allowances are for the child – food, clothes, transport – not wages.
The “fee” carers receive for their work varies wildly, and in many cases amounts to well below the minimum wage for what is effectively a 24/7 job.
Carers describe being on call around the clock, dealing with violence, trauma, school exclusions and police call-outs – all while juggling unstable income and little job security.
There’s also an elephant in the room: private agencies. Local authorities say they can’t compete, losing carers to agencies that often pay more – at far greater cost to the public purse.
The government’s plan doesn’t really tackle that imbalance.
A Sky News investigation showed what this crisis really means. Nonita Grabovskyte, a care leaver, repeatedly begged for a foster family – but none could be found.
Instead, she was placed in unregulated accommodation beside a high-speed railway line, despite telling professionals she wanted to take her own life.
Two weeks after turning 18, Nonita was killed by a train. Charities say a safe, stable foster home could have changed the course of her life.
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But this isn’t the first time ministers have promised to turn the tide.
Similar commitments were made under previous Conservative governments – with little to show for it. Carer numbers kept falling. Pressure kept rising. And children increasingly ended up in unregulated or unsuitable placements.
So the question now isn’t whether the government is serious – it’s whether it’s willing to confront the uncomfortable truth that fostering relies on goodwill, personal sacrifice, and carers quietly subsidising the state.
Until that changes, no amount of branding, roadshows or recruitment slogans is likely to stop the slow, steady exodus from a system many say is already at breaking point.
