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Responding to the reports published by the Children's Commissioner for England today, Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: 'We welcome the reports from the office of the Children's Commissioner for England.
'The vast majority of children in care in the UK are living with fostering families and it is essential that all children who need a foster family are able to live with one.
We welcome Ofsted’s latest research on matching in foster care, published today. It finds that good matches are not down to luck and chemistry but are something that can be developed through good practice.
Stability for looked after children is vital, this is why matching in foster care is so important. When matches do not work, fostering arrangements breakdown which causes instability for the child and, sometimes, results in the foster carer taking a break from fostering or leaving the workforce altogether.
The Government published their strategy response 'Stable Homes, Built on Love' at the beginning of February 2023 in response to Josh MacAlister's Independent Review of Children's Social Care in England.
This information page provides an overview of work with kinship carers in England, and outlines the five main ways in which arrangements are made and monitored:
Family and friends foster carers are approved local authority foster carers who have been assessed in relation to their suitability to care for a named child or named children only, and this should be reflected in the terms of their approval. However the fostering assessment should follow the two stage process outlined in the fostering regulations and statutory guidance Assessment and Approval of foster carers.
Young people are missing out on the chance to stay living with their foster families after they turn 18. Although there is now provision in the law for young people to stay until they are 21 across the UK, financial and cultural barriers mean this is not happening often enough.
According to our 2018 State of the Nation survey:
