Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the extent to which foster carers approved by independent fostering agencies receive equivalent support from local authorities compared with in house foster carers.

Fostering is a challenging role that requires skills and dedication from those who foster, and it is crucial that foster carers receive the support they need to enable them to fulfil this role.

The National Minimum Standards (NMS) for fostering sets out the minimum expectations for the support, supervision and training that all fostering services must provide to foster carers, ensuring consistently high quality care for children. The NMS sets out the expectation that each foster carer receives at least the national minimum allowance for the child in their care.

We have committed to reviewing and updating the NMS as part of our wider programme of reforms. The government’s action plan published in February 2026, ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’, sets out our approach to recruiting more foster carers, and strengthening support for foster families. This includes the development of an enhanced training and support package for foster carers, which will be rolled out from 2026/27.