‘Very real crisis’ in foster care as charity issues warning over sharp fall in applications

Barnados says ballooning living costs and working from home are contributing to a decline in foster carers

The shortage of foster carers in the UK is a “very real crisis” that is leading to more children entering care homes, a leading children’s charity has warned.

Barnados said experienced foster carers are retiring and fewer people are coming forward to fill the gap, leaving children without families to go to.

New survey data from the charity found that three quarters of adults in the UK say they are worried there aren’t enough foster carers to give children safe and loving homes - but only seven per cent would consider adopting a child within the next ten years.

The warning comes after The Independent revealed that many councils are paying over £10,000 per week per child for residential care home placements.

The leading children’s charity pointed to the pandemic, increases in the cost of living, and home-working trends, as reasons for the decline in foster caring.

There has been a steady decrease in the number of applications to be a foster carer in recent years, with about 8,000 applications from prospective fostering families in the 2022/23 financial year - down 18 per cent on 2018/19.

This has led to a dip in the number of families being approved as carers - a fall of seven per cent since 2019. Meanwhile the number of children and young people placed in care has risen by seven per cent since 2019, contributing to a 45 per cent increase in residential care home placements over the same period, according to the County Councils Network.

There aren’t enough foster carers for the number of children in care, charity Barnado’s has warned (Getty Images)

Brenda Farrell, director of fostering and adoption at Barnardo’s, said the charity was working “against the back-drop of a very real crisis in our society”.

“Today thousands of children in care are waiting for safe, happy homes and there simply aren’t enough foster carers to accommodate them. This means these children may be placed in an environment which doesn’t meet their needs, and we know that they can feel as if they are being passed from pillar to post with their lives in a constant state of upheaval,” she said, adding many experienced foster carers are retiring, while fewer people were coming forward to fill the gap.

“We think there are a number of reasons for this, including the impact of the pandemic, the cost of living, the fact that children are living with their families for longer before moving out and people are using what may once have been a spare room as a home office.”

A survey of 4,430 UK adults by the charity found that 82 per cent of over 55s thought they were too old to be foster carers, and more than a third of 25 to 44-year-olds said they wouldn’t consider fostering as an option.

Fifteen per cent of respondents said they couldn’t afford to foster a child, and 19 per cent said they didn’t have suitable accommodation.

The children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has warned of an “alarming” rise in unregistered children’s homes as councils struggle to find placements for the young people in their care.

The number of applications from prospective foster carers has dropped by 18 per cent since 2019 (Getty Images)

Council leaders have also said that the children’s social care sector is “broken”, with “market failure” driving “excessive costs”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said the government was investing £15 million to boost the number of foster carers and offer children a stable environment to grow up in.

“Foster carers play a hugely important role in the wider children’s social care system and will be at the heart of our thinking as we refocus the system to provide earlier support and greater stability for children,” the spokesperson said.