Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to recruit foster carers.

Currently, there are 10 regional fostering programmes active across England, collaborating with over 60% of all local authorities to recruit and retain foster carers. This government is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to recruit more foster carers.

As part of my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Transformation Fund announced in the Spring Statement, we will provide an additional £25 million over two years (beginning in 2026/27 and 2027/28) for foster care, as part of children’s social care reform. This is on top of the £15 million of fostering investment that was announced in the Autumn Budget 2024, to cover investment taking place in 2025/26. This funding is to start work to ensure every local authority has the offer of access to a hub and to embed the existing regional fostering recruitment and retention hubs.

The hubs will transform the way people who are interested in fostering are supported and rollout the Mockingbird programme, which offers peer-support to foster carers and the children in their care. The department is also funding ‘Fosterlink’, a support service for local authority fostering services.