Local authorities must do more to recruit foster carers, Minister says

Children’s Minister Janet Daby said local authorities must recruit more foster carers in a speech at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Conference in Manchester last week.

The Minister thanked the audience for the work they do for children, but set a challenge to improve numbers of local authority foster carers recruited and retained with numerous references and repeated calls throughout her speech.

“Like any good minister, any good Labour Minister, I do also challenge you to help me to help children,” Ms Daby said.

“Foster care allows children to live in stable, secure, loving homes—an environment that they so desperately need.

“But as you know, foster carers numbers are not where they should be and I have tasked myself personally that when I'm giving a speech […] to task you to say that we need to increase foster carer numbers, we need to increase the number of foster carers that are coming through.”

Ms Daby said the lack of foster carers was meaning that many children were being placed too far away from their communities, and that this impacts social workers “being able to reach them and get to know them” and causes disruption by removing them from the community they are used to.

“Obviously we must change things. We must recruit more for foster carers within our local authorities, and it is central to reforming children social care. So I'm asking you, please prioritize the recruitment and retention.”

The call was met with strong criticism from many of the children’s social care leaders in attendance, with Bernie Brown, DCS at Staffordshire County Council saying she felt “patronised” by the comments.

Helen Brackenbury, DCS at Cheshire West and Chester added: “I think [the Government] really need to realize that the way fostering is set up now…it was built in a time and an age that was completely different to where we are now.

“All I'm hearing is a challenge to us about recruit better, do more. We're all working tirelessly to do that day in, day out.

“The previous Government actually invested a lot and we've not seen the impact of that with more foster carers coming forward. We’ve fundamentally got the system wrong and the power lies with you, not us, to do something about that.”
Others, including Durham DCS John Pearce, questioned why they were being challenged to recruit more foster carers at the same time that Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) were “hoovering up local authority foster carers and selling them back to us.”

Ms Daby confirmed that the Department for Education is looking into how regional fostering recruitment hubs are working—collaborative initiatives between local authorities to streamline and improve the process of recruiting foster carers. Now operating in nearly two-thirds of English local authorities, the Minister recommended local authorities join these hubs which aim to increase the number of foster families, enhance placement stability, and strengthen support for carers by providing a centralized platform for prospective foster carers to access information and support throughout their journey.