Initial foster care enquiry levels at lowest in five years
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The number of initial enquiries from potential foster carers in England has fallen to its lowest level in five years.
According to latest figures from the Department for Education, 125,195 initial applications were received by local authorities and independent foster agencies in 2022/23.
This is the lowest number of applications to become mainstream foster carers – which excludes family and friends foster carers - since current recording began in 2017/18, the statistics show.
A peak in initial enquiries was seen in 2020/21 when 160,635 were received.
In 2022/23, local authorities received around a quarter of the number of initial enquiries received by independent foster agencies which had 99, 375 enquiries.
Of applications received by independent foster agencies and local authorities in 2022/23, 3,680 were accepted.
Meanwhile, in the same year more households deregistered (5,125) than were approved (4,080).
There were 275 households that were both approved and deregistered within the same year.
“The largest proportion of newly approved carers in 2022 to 2023 were in their 40s and 50s.
“Of the carers who deregistered this year, the highest proportion were aged 50 or over, at 64%. Those aged 60 or over made up 30%.
“These proportions have remained similar for the 4 years that we have collected data on carers’ ages,” the report states.
At the end of March 2023, there were 43,405 fostering households in England, including family and friends foster carers.
