The Government's Renewing Fostering plan rightly recognises that England needs more foster carers. More regional hubs, faster approvals, a renewed focus on recruitment - all welcome. But the biggest challenge is not bringing new people into fostering. It is keeping the experienced carers we already have.
The numbers are stark. The number of approved mainstream foster carers in England has fallen by 12% since 2021, with a net loss of 720 carers in the year to March 2025. During that year alone, almost 4,700 fostering households deregistered. Recruitment matters, but too many experienced carers are leaving faster than they can be replaced.
Every carer who leaves takes years of hard-won expertise with them. For children with complex needs - trauma, disability, severe behavioural challenges - the relationship with a skilled, trusted carer is often the single most stabilising factor in their lives. When that placement ends because a carer has had enough, the consequences ripple across the system: disrupted childhoods, greater pressure on local authorities and rising costs for the taxpayer.
At National Fostering Group, we have seen what sustained investment in carers actually delivers. More than 200,000 hours of training for colleagues and carers last year, alongside specialist therapeutic, education and safeguarding support wrapped around every placement. Our carer turnover remains below the Ofsted sector average, and we are proud that we have organic net carer growth across the group. That does not happen by accident.
So why are experienced carers leaving? Of course there are many reasons, but in our experience, two things stand out that are both fixable.
The first is allegation investigations. When a concern is raised, the process can drag on for months, sometimes years. During that time carers are frequently left feeling isolated, unsupported and presumed guilty until proven otherwise. We lose good, committed people at this point - not because they failed children, but because the system failed them. Faster, fairer, more supportive processes would keep many of them in the role.
The second is access to children's mental health support. Foster carers looking after children with complex needs spend too much time battling for assessments and treatment while children's needs escalate. By the time support arrives, placements have often already broken down and children have moved into far more expensive residential care. Accepting assessments from appropriately qualified independent clinicians, rather than relying solely on NHS pathways, would be a practical and immediate step forward.
Independent fostering agencies have a particular role to play here. They support nearly 38,000 children across the UK, disproportionately those with the most complex needs - and that pressure is growing. FOI data collected from local authorities across the UK shows a 33% increase in children entering care with complex needs in 2025 compared with 2024. The sector cannot afford to keep treating IFAs as peripheral to national planning. They are where much of the specialist capability lives.
At National Fostering Group, we have seen what sustained investment in carers actually delivers. More than 200,000 hours of training for colleagues and carers last year, alongside specialist therapeutic, education and safeguarding support wrapped around every placement. Our carer turnover remains below the Ofsted sector average, and we are proud that we have organic net carer growth across the group. That does not happen by accident.
Retention is not simply a funding issue. It is about how the system values the people doing one of the most demanding jobs in public service. Foster carers are skilled practitioners who build expertise over many years. When they leave, we lose capability that cannot quickly or cheaply be replaced.
As Directors of Children's Services gather in Manchester this week for the ADCS Annual Conference, carer retention should be at the top of the agenda. The Fostering Network has already said the Renewing Fostering plan is disappointing on this front. The Government has correctly identified the need to recruit more carers. Now it must show the same ambition in keeping them.
That means faster, more humane allegation processes, better access to mental health support for looked-after children, and a system that genuinely values the people who show up every day for some of our most vulnerable children. Keeping our best foster carers is not a workforce management issue. It is how we give children the stable, loving homes they deserve."
Tim Barclay, chief executive, National Fostering Group
