Frustrated foster carers with placement vacancies

The UK has a shortfall of ten thousand new foster carers every year. This continues to put immense pressure on fostering providers to find safe placements for their children.

The facts are, there are thousands of foster carers working with Independant Fostering Agencies, who have placement vacancies for children and young people.These fostering vacancies are estimated to be around two thousand across the UK.

In many cases, foster carers are extremely frustrated that their fostering agencies are unable to use them to their full potential.

There are various reasons why, such as foster carers having to meet the needs and requirements of foster children already in placement, foster carers request to put vacancies on hold and fostering agencies decision not to place for practice reasons.

However, the most common reason for a lack of placements is that the agencies are simply not receiving referrals from fostering providers/local authorities in their area.