What is the foster care crisis and how can we tackle it?

Warnings continue to sound about factors negatively impacting the number of foster carers in the UK. In this post, we introduce what the foster care crisis is, discuss how it is impacting vulnerable children and young people, and consider how collectively, we can tackle the problems driving the crisis.

Starting with the facts and figures, our Head of Fostering, Martin Leitch, also provides a constructive analysis of the problems and suggested solutions.

How many children are in foster care in the UK?

According to the latest figures from the Fostering Network, there are nearly 70,000 children living in 55,000 fostering households in the UK.

Is there a shortage of foster carers in the UK?

Research consistently suggests that many more foster carers are needed. Data from the Social Market Foundation (August 2021) predicts the UK will need 63,000 new foster care families by 2026.

Many areas are experiencing an urgent need for new foster carers. There are shortages of foster carers providing particular types of foster care including fostering teenagers and specialist fostering. When there are foster carer shortages, a young person may need to:

Wait longer for a suitable foster home.
Travel further away from familiar surroundings, their school and their friends.
Be separated from siblings.
Stay with a foster family who may be unable to meet the child’s needs.

Why do foster carers leave?

While foster carers are leaving the profession, reports suggest a number of factors have and continue to contribute to a foster carer deficit, including:

The impact of the COVID pandemic in changing how people work, resulting in fewer households having spare rooms.
Older foster carers are not being replaced as they retire.
The cost of living crisis in the UK, placing greater financial pressures on families to earn more or downsize their homes.
Misconceptions and myths around who can foster.

Five Rivers responds to coverage of the UK carer crisis

Commenting on the Foster Care Crisis in response to coverage in the press, Martin Leitch, head of fostering, Five Rivers Child Care, said:

“I read Michael Savage’s article on the Foster Carer crisis in the Observer (August 29th, 2021) with interest. The Social Market Foundation’s stats are stark, estimating a shortfall of 25,000 foster families over the next five years. Whilst some might say we’re heading for a foster carer recruitment crisis, I sometimes feel like we’re living one right now and that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Tackling the UK shortage of foster carers

“I support the call to government to run a national foster carer recruitment campaign. There’s never been a more crucial time for us all to pull together and raise awareness of fostering. To make this successful we need a two-pronged approach:

1) To learn from those in the sector about what works to incentivise people to foster.

2) To overcome what is making this dedicated workforce contemplate early ‘retirement’.

“A recent survey Five Rivers commissioned demonstrated that there’s still confusion over whether carers can be single, get paid, have holidays and need to be homeowners*. These findings show there’s a long way to go to re-educate the general public about the role of foster carers in society.

Prioritising support and training for foster carers

“Foster Carers must feel supported and part of a team who are working to improve the lives of the children and young people in their care. This support is multi-faceted at Five Rivers and is highly regarded by our foster carers and results in them being able to work positively with the children and young people in their care.

“These are intense jobs which come with huge highs and challenging lows. We have to equip carers, through training and clinical supervision, to understand their children’s world and how they interact with it. This is a fundamental part of our foster carer support package.

“Ensuring we have respite carers who can offer breaks to our carers is fundamental, but this is challenging in the wake of a national recruitment crisis. The government-led recruitment strategy needs to address this. We cannot run a functional and effective foster care service without suitable respite.

“These are two important areas of support which we have developed over the years based on our experience and feedback from foster carers about what they need to ensure they do the best they can for children and young people in their care. There are many other ways foster carers are supported in their day-to-day lives and this will always be something that can be relied on by foster carers at Five Rivers.

“Fortunately, we haven’t seen a mass exodus of our carers, but we’re acutely aware of the pressures the pandemic has put on them. We have thanked and acknowledged our incredible carers who opened their doors, when many others were closing. Can we thank them enough? I’m not sure we can. Can we take curative action to address this recruitment crisis? I think we can.”

What reasons can they deny foster care applications in the UK?

There are still many myths and misconceptions around who can foster, what can stop foster care applicants becoming foster carers, and support available for fostering.

*The Five Rivers Census Wide Survey of 2000 people in 2021 revealed that:

over 30% of people didn’t know or were unsure if single people could foster
58% thought you had to own your own home, or were unsure
44% didn’t think, or didn’t know, that foster carers get paid a professional fee
66% didn’t think or were unsure if foster carers get paid holidays breaks

Find out what’s fostering fact and what’s fiction by reading the answers to frequently asked fostering questions. You can also download our guide to fostering.