Foster Care
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Oral Statement: Enduring Relationships Strategy for Children’s Social Care of 4 June 2026, what estimate she has made of the number of additional foster carers required to deliver the Government's target of 10,000 new foster care places by the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Josh MacAlister
'Renewing Fostering: homes for 10,000 more children’ commits to creating 10,000 more foster placements by April 2029, providing a foster placement for every child who needs one. Using Ofsted trends in new approval and deregistration rates of foster households (converted into placements), we project a continued decline in fostering capacity without intervention. This forecast provides the department's baseline for the target. It is difficult to estimate the true number of foster carers required.
Our demand estimate is based on:
- Children currently entering children’s homes could be placed in foster care.
- Additional capacity needed to reduce the movement of children from current foster places into children’s homes.
- Further places are required to improve placement matching, ensuring children have more than one suitable foster carer.
Combined, these factors indicate 10,000 additional places will be needed by April 2029. This estimate contains uncertainty and does not reflect likely reductions in demand from reforms such as the Families First Partnership.
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