Why we need more foster carers

Why we need to recruit more foster carers

Across the UK, more than 54,000 children and young people live with 43,000 foster families on any one day. Many more children move in and out of foster homes during the year.

In order to provide these children with the highest standard of care, each child should be able to live with a foster family carefully chosen to meet their specific needs.

The Fostering Network estimates that there is an urgent need for over 10,000 more foster carers in the UK. This shortage means that children are too often being moved from home to home, are split up from their brothers and sisters, and have to live a long way from their family and friends. The more people who are approved as foster carers, the more likely it is that a good match can be found for a child in terms of location, culture, lifestyle, language and interests, reducing this damaging instability and disruption.