The Department for Education (DfE) has unveiled a £12.4 million Fostering Innovation Fund aimed at modernising the UK’s foster care system. The initiative seeks to attract younger carers, trial new forms of care, and create 10,000 additional foster care places over the course of this Parliament, benefiting thousands of young people.
Expert Caution: Recruitment Not Enough
Fostering expert Trevor Elliott, founder of Kennedy Elliott and an MBE recipient for his work with vulnerable children, warned that the push for recruitment may fall short without accompanying improvements. Drawing on his own experience as a single foster carer at age 24, Elliott emphasised: 'What’s important is that innovation is matched with proper support for carers. Recruitment alone isn’t enough; foster carers need ongoing training, therapeutic support, and financial stability if we want children to experience long-term consistency and positive outcomes.'
He also highlighted the need for stronger collaboration between fostering services, residential providers, and local authorities, given the increasing complexity of children’s needs.
Modernising Assumptions About Foster Carers
The DfE aims to challenge outdated assumptions that foster carers must be in traditional married relationships with one partner staying at home. Elliott’s own story exemplifies this shift: he took on three teenage boys as a single, 24-year-old carer. His foster children have since left home, and he describes fostering as 'the best thing I’ve done in my life'. He advocates for fostering to be recognised more as a career than an expectation of the good-natured.
New Forms of Care and Funding Allocation
The Fostering Innovation Fund will be allocated to Fostering Hubs and Regional Care Co-operatives to expand successful programmes and trial new support models. These include weekend-only fostering and shorter-term placements during the week. The fund is part of the Government’s broader Fostering Action Plan, which aims to make fostering more flexible, improve support for carers, and update decision-making processes on who can become a carer.
Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister stated: 'Every child deserves the chance to grow up in a safe and loving home. This investment will help us bring fostering into the 21st century, moving on from outdated assumptions about who can foster and how care should be offered, opening it up to a wider range of people. This will help us recruit more carers and change more children’s lives by giving them a stable home.'
Elliott praised the reform overall, noting: 'The fostering system has to evolve with modern life, and there are many people who could provide safe, stable, and loving homes if fostering became more flexible and accessible. Innovative models such as respite and weekend fostering could help support children earlier, strengthen placements, and reduce unnecessary admissions into residential care.'
