2. State of the Nation’s Foster Care 2016
The experience of foster carers across the UK
Diane Heath
Practice Support Consultant
The Fostering Network London Conference
30 November 2017

3. What we did: The survey
Largest UK survey of fostering: 2,530 respondents
77% of responses from England
Snapshot of the experience of fostering
in the UK
Monitoring trends and progress (biennial survey)

4. Why we did it: Understanding the experience of fostering
Unique insight into views and experience of fostering
Influencing and shaping in 2017
Supporting fostering services
Raising awareness outside of fostering community

5. Why we did it: our vision and mission
Vision: “A society where the importance of fostering is recognised, understood and supported”
Mission: “To support those who foster, improve opportunities for children and young people who are fostered and provide expert guidance to all fostering services”

6. What the data tells us: Workforce issues

7. What the data tells us:
Practice issues

8. Only 55% of foster carers would recommend fostering to others
What the data tells us:
Views and attitudes
Only 55% of foster carers would recommend fostering to others

9. One change that would help foster carers improve the lives of the children they care for

10. Using the data Working with our members – service benchmarking
Internal priority setting – focusing our resources
External influencing and shaping
Further research into themes
Giving a voice to the community

11. How can you use the data? Accessing the full report
practice/policies/state-nations-foster-care-2016
Benchmarking your service
Service level survey
Influencing change at service level
Priority setting
Regional priorities

12. What comes after the survey?
National media activity
Fostering Stocktake and Fostering Inquiry
2018 foster carer survey – monitoring change
Social work and fostering service survey

13. Thank you www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/sotn campaigns@fostering.net