The UK is facing a fostering crisis where retiring carers are not being replaced by younger people, while the number of children entering care homes is rising, a charity has warned.
The decline in foster carers is due to the impact of the pandemic, the costof living crisis, biological children staying at home for longer, spare rooms being used as home offices and changing family situations, Barnardo’s children’s charity said.
Exclusive new polling of more than 4,000 adults for the charity showed that although nearly three quarters (73%) of adults in the UK were worried there are not enough foster carers, only 7% of those who are not currently approved carers would consider fostering a child within the next 10 years.
When asked why they wouldn’t consider becoming foster carers, 82% of over-55s thought they were “too old” – despite this being the average age of a Barnardo’s foster carer – while more than a third of 25- to 44-year-olds said they already have children or want children that are biologically connected to them instead (34%).
Others said they couldn’t afford it (15%) and they did not have suitable accommodation (19%).
Brenda Farrell, director of fostering and adoption at Barnardo’s, said the charity had worked with foster carers for over 150 years, but “in 2025 we are doing this work against the backdrop of a very real crisis in our society”.
She added: “Today thousands of children in care are waiting for safe, happy homes and there simply aren’t enough foster carers to accommodate them. This means these children may be placed in an environment which doesn’t meet their needs, and we know that they can feel as if they are being passed from pillar to post with their lives in a constant state of upheaval.”
She urged the government to launch a national campaign to recruit more foster carers, as well as tackling the “root causes of the record number of children going into the care system”, including through more investment in help for families before they reach crisis point to enable children to remain at home.
“We know it’s a big decision to become a foster carer, but with another child coming into the care system every 15 minutes, there’s no time to wait. Often children will tell you their foster carer changed their life,” she said.
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, a sociology professor at Coventry University, said shortages were particularly stark among some religious, cultural and ethnic communities, and that there were strong regional variations.
She urged the government to roll out foster carer recruitment campaigns targeted at minority communities, similar to those promoting adoption, since children often settle in better with families whose identities reflect their own and to address the fact that “if you’re black or brown or Muslim heritage you’re so much more likely to be placed in an institution”.
Out of the nearly 12 million children living in England, just over 400,000 (3%) are in the social care system at any one time. Since 2014, the number of children’s homes has increased by 70%, from 2,057 to 3,491.
Increasingly, children are fostered by family and friends – at the end of March 2023, these accounted for 19% of all active fostering households, an increase from 16% in 2019. Since 2019, the number of approved mainstream fostering households has fallen by 7%, while applications are 18% lower than in 2018.
The British Association for Social Workers’ England professional officer, Denise Monks, said the lack of foster carers was placing more pressure on “profit-driven” residential placements, while social workers can only offer “ever-depleting” services and support for children and families.
“It is essential that skilled social workers can arrange the right local support based on individual need and not dictated by market forces or lack of investment,” she said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are investing £15m to boost the number of foster carers next year, to generate hundreds of new foster placements and offer children a stable environment to grow up in.
“Foster carers play a hugely important role in the wider children’s social care system and will be at the heart of our thinking as we refocus the system to provide earlier support and greater stability for children.”
