The numbers that forced the conversation
The timing of this consultation is not coincidental. The data has been heading in one direction for half a decade:
- Fostering households in England have declined by 10% since 2021, falling to 33,435 as of March 2025 (Ofsted, Fostering in England 2024–25).
- Approved mainstream foster carers dropped 12% in the same period, to 56,345 — and the decline is accelerating, not slowing.
- In the year ending March 2025, more fostering households deregistered (5,125) than were approved (4,080). The workforce is shrinking.
- Initial enquiries from prospective carers hit a five-year low in 2022–23 and have not recovered.
The result is entirely predictable: more children placed in residential care, often hundreds of miles from their communities, at significantly higher cost and — in many cases — worse outcomes. Sibling groups are being separated because no single household can accommodate them. Children with complex needs are being placed in unregistered settings because regulated placements are not available.
This is the crisis the consultation attempts to address.
What the consultation proposes
The consultation, published on gov.uk, covers five key areas. Here is what matters for Independent Fostering Agencies.
1. Expanded eligibility — and a direct challenge to gatekeeping
The headline proposal: single people, renters, and those in full-time employment should be able to foster. This sounds obvious, but in practice, some local authorities and agencies have applied informal rules that effectively excluded these groups. The consultation cites examples of councils that primarily approved married homeowners working part-time — a filter that eliminated the majority of potential carers before they even applied.
For IFAs, this is both an opportunity and a compliance question. If the reforms are enacted, your assessment processes will need to demonstrate that you are not applying eligibility criteria beyond what the regulations require. Expect Ofsted to scrutinise this at inspection.
2. A national fostering rulebook
This is the most structurally significant proposal. Currently, assessment and approval processes vary enormously between agencies. The same prospective carer might be approved in one agency and rejected by another — not because of a safeguarding concern, but because of differing interpretations of the National Minimum Standards and Fostering Services Regulations 2011.
The proposed national rulebook would standardise these processes. For agencies, this means your assessment methodology, panel processes, and approval criteria will eventually need to align with a national standard. Start reviewing your Form F process and panel operating procedures now. The rulebook is not yet published, but the direction of travel is clear: consistency, transparency, and reduced bureaucracy.
3. Changes to the fostering limit
The consultation proposes amending the current limit on the number of children a foster carer can look after. This has always been a blunt instrument — a carer with five bedrooms and twenty years of experience is subject to the same cap as a newly approved carer in a two-bedroom flat. The reform would allow for more flexible limits based on the carer's capacity, the children's needs, and the agency's professional assessment.
For agencies already managing exemptions under Regulation 25, this may simplify the governance significantly.
4. Kinship care barriers
The consultation also addresses barriers for connected persons fostering — family and friends carers who often face a different (and sometimes more difficult) approval journey than mainstream carers. This is primarily a local authority issue, but IFAs working with connected persons should note the direction: faster assessment, less duplication, and recognition that these carers have pre-existing relationships with the children.
5. £88 million in funding
The reforms are backed by £88 million, repurposed from existing DfE budgets. How this money reaches agencies is not yet clear. Previous funding rounds have been directed at regional fostering hubs, local authority recruitment campaigns, and peer support programmes. IFAs should watch for further announcements on funding eligibility — and be ready to apply quickly.
What is not changing
It is equally important to note what the consultation does not propose:
- The Fostering Services Regulations 2011 remain in force. Schedule 6 and Schedule 7 requirements — including notification timelines for serious events — are unchanged.
- The National Minimum Standards are not being rewritten. All 31 standards continue to apply. What is changing is how they are interpreted and applied at assessment.
- Ofsted's SCCIF framework is separate. The three judgement areas — experiences and progress of children, safeguarding (the limiting judgement), and leadership — remain the basis of inspection. These reforms do not alter how your agency is graded.
- DBS, training, and supervision requirements are untouched. If your compliance engine is built around NMS 19–21, nothing here changes your obligations.
What your agency should do now
The consultation has closed, but the legislation has not been drafted. This is the preparation window.
- Audit your assessment criteria. Are you applying any informal eligibility filters beyond what the regulations require? If your Stage 1 screening automatically excludes renters or single applicants, revise it now.
- Review your Form F process. When the national rulebook arrives, agencies with well-documented, transparent assessment processes will adapt faster. Agencies relying on institutional memory and ad-hoc panel guidance will struggle.
- Track your recruitment conversion funnel. If these reforms bring a wave of new enquiries from non-traditional demographics, you need to know your conversion rates at each stage: enquiry → Stage 1 → Stage 2 → panel → approval. You cannot improve what you do not measure.
- Prepare for Ofsted scrutiny. When these reforms take effect, inspectors will ask whether your agency has adapted. “We were waiting for the final guidance” is not an answer that earns Outstanding.
- Engage with the Call for Evidence. The DfE simultaneously launched a Call for Evidence for professionals and those with lived experience. Your registered manager, supervising social workers, and carers all have perspectives worth submitting.
The political context
The government has committed to creating 10,000 additional foster care places by the end of this Parliament. That is an ambitious target given the current trajectory. It is also an acknowledgement that the fostering crisis is not a staffing problem alone — it is a structural problem rooted in outdated rules, inconsistent practice, and an approval process that has not kept pace with how people actually live.
For IFAs specifically, there is a strategic dimension here. The 339 IFAs in England now account for 44% of mainstream fostering households and 48% of all filled mainstream placements(Ofsted, 2024–25). The independent sector is not a peripheral player — it is the backbone of placement provision. Any reform that increases the carer pipeline benefits IFAs disproportionately, provided you are positioned to receive the new applicants.
What comes next
The DfE will publish a response to the consultation later in 2026, likely followed by draft legislation or amended statutory guidance. The national rulebook is expected to be developed in collaboration with the sector before implementation.
We will cover each development as it is published.