6th February 2026 • My Family Our Needs

Fostering rules will be relaxed to help create 10,000 new places for vulnerable children in England by allowing younger and more diverse households to become foster carers.

In addition to these rule changes, a further £88m of funding is being funnelled into foster care to help with a complete overhaul the system.

Under the new rules, it will become easier for full-time workers to become foster carers and clearer guidelines are being drawn up to encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds to become involved in the foster care system.

The government says that more young people are ending up in children’s homes rather than being placed within a foster family due to a ‘critical shortage’ of foster carers. Official figures show that the number of foster carers fell from 63,890 in 2021 to 56,345 in March 2025. In the last 12 months alone, there have been 1,140 fewer foster places available for children in England than the year before.

In 2024-25, over 81,000 children were in the care of their local authority across England, two thirds of which were removed from their birth families because of abuse or neglect.  Almost 55,000 were placed with foster carers, however, available places have decreased by 2% compared to the year before.

A report by the National Audit Office last year found that councils spending on putting children in residential homes has almost doubled over the last five years, with it reaching £3.1bn by 2023-24. The report said that a shortage of suitable alternatives and higher fees from private providers were costing councils an annual average of £318,400 per child.

John MacAlister, Minister for children and families, said, ‘150,000 people last year came forward and expressed an interest in fostering, but we only approved just over 7,000 of them.’ MacAlister blames these numbers on the outdated rules of the foster care system and believes that modernising it will help create 10,000 new foster placements before the end of this parliament.

MacAlister, said, ‘Reversing the decline in the number of available foster places is an urgent priority for me because fostering is so vital to our wider mission to give vulnerable children the best possible start in life.

‘We’re bring fostering into the 21^st century, removing outdates rules and unnecessary barriers to become foster carers as part of our overhaul of the care system.’

Currently, some councils only allow people to become foster carers if they are married, homeowners and don’t work full-time.

The proposals say that there will be closer co-operation across regions to improve training and allow for faster decisions to be made when it comes to approving new foster carers and placing children.

It is also stated that help with be offered for people to make home improvements, such as extending their homes, and an increase in practical day-to-day support for families through schemes like the Mockingbird programme run by The Fostering Network.

Fair Ways, a Hampshire-based children’s charity, has welcomed the government’s pledge to reverse the decline in foster carer numbers.

Fostering has been central to Fair Ways’ work since 2002, with the charity providing high-quality, trauma-informed fostering services across Hampshire. As a charity, Fair Ways reinvests all surplus back into services that improve outcomes for children in care.

The government’s announcement comes at a critical time, with demand for foster placements continuing to outstrip supply. Fair Ways supports the government’s focus on strengthening fostering and believes the reforms represent an important step toward ensuring more children can grow up in safe, stable and loving family homes.

However, many current and former foster carers say that these changes are not addressing the root of the issue and that the crisis in foster care runs deeper than a lack of places.

Over the past ten years, governments have announced recruitment drives for the foster care system, trying to make fostering more attractive and improving support for carers. However, despite these efforts the number of foster carers has continued to decline.

According to figures from Fostering England, over the past ten years the number of carers has decreased by 12% with more carers leaving that joining.

A former foster carer told sky news, ‘I had to leave fostering because I found the system was just too challenging to work with. We’re not just warm hearts and a spare room; we are professionals doing a role that is incredibly challenging.

Sarah Thomas, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network, said, ‘Foster carers tell us that due to the cost-of-living crisis, they do not have the funds in order to enable them to continue fostering.

‘It is why people are leaving and we really call on the government to ensure they put more investment into the finance and remuneration of fostering in the UK’.

Details of the new rules are subject to consultation and are due to be published at a later date.

In other news, the Government has unveiled landmark SEND training reforms, including £4m for children and young people with SEND on the Isle of Wight.