Fostering in England 2020 to 2021: main findings

Ofsted have released their latest finding on Fostering in England.

This release covers:

  • The numbers of foster carers and foster places and placements, in both local authority (LA) fostering agencies and independent fostering agencies (IFAs)
  • Data relating to types of foster care, registrations, deregistrations and a range of other subjects
  • The period between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021

Updated inclide:

As of 31 March 2021, there were 45,370 fostering households and 76,640 foster carers in England. This is a 2% and 4% increase since 2014 to 2015, respectively. However, over the period to March 2020, the number of children in foster care grew by around 11%.

There were 160,635 initial enquiries from prospective fostering households in the year ending 31 March 2021, but only 10,145 (6%) foster carer applications were received. This proportion has decreased from 12% in 2014 to 2015.

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