Foster care checks are the statutory and agency assessments used to establish whether fostering is suitable and safe. Understanding what each route involves helps you compare options, prepare evidence and find informed local support for your application.
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Our regional teams provide practical guidance through each stage of the assessment journey, helping you understand required checks, prepare supporting information and know where to turn for consistent fostering support from people with local understanding.
Foster care checks can include identity and address details, household information, health, criminal record checks and personal references. The exact requirements depend on your circumstances and the fostering service assessing your application.
Gathering relevant documents and details early can make the assessment easier to follow. This may include your address history, work and household information, and details needed to support your application.
Checks help assess whether a prospective foster carer can provide a safe and suitable home. Criminal record information is considered alongside the wider circumstances of the applicant, rather than viewed in isolation.
The assessment considers the home environment, including safety, available space, sleeping arrangements and how the household could meet a child’s needs. You can discuss practical changes with your fostering team.
Training helps you understand the responsibilities of fostering, safeguarding expectations and the needs of children in care. It also gives you an opportunity to consider how fostering would fit within your household.
Some checks need further explanation because every household has different circumstances. A local fostering team can help you understand requests for information and identify what you may need to clarify during assessment.
Foster care checks are the checks completed before a fostering service can recommend someone for approval. They usually include an enhanced DBS check, local authority checks, identity and address checks, employment and financial information, references, and a medical assessment. Everyone in the household who is aged 16 or over may need relevant checks, depending on their role and circumstances.
A criminal record does not automatically mean you cannot foster. The fostering service considers the offence, how long ago it occurred, the sentence, any pattern of behaviour and its relevance to caring for children. Certain serious offences may prevent approval, while other convictions can be assessed as part of the wider application. You should give complete and accurate information rather than assuming a past offence will rule you out.
The medical assessment considers whether your health is compatible with fostering and whether you can meet the needs of a child safely. Checks are considered alongside interviews, training and an assessment of your household, relationships, experience and capacity to provide care. If the assessment recommends approval, the fostering service makes the final decision about your approval terms, such as the age range or number of children you can foster.
Support for foster care checks and requirements includes clear application information, practical training, financial guidance about allowances, and help understanding fostering responsibilities.
Following approval, placement support helps with day-to-day care, while ongoing advice can include the whole household, giving each person relevant information about their role and contribution throughout the fostering journey.
Clear guidance helps you understand the evidence, information and household details needed during foster care checks.
Training helps you consider safeguarding, relationships, behaviour and the practical responsibilities involved in fostering before approval.
Information about fostering allowances helps you understand the financial arrangements to consider alongside the assessment process.
Relevant information and discussion can help household members understand how checks and fostering may affect their roles and relationships.
Support helps you prepare for conversations about your experience, capacity, health and home life without assuming that one factor determines the outcome.
Once approved, placement support helps you apply your preparation to the day-to-day care of children and young people.
Ask who will coordinate each check, how consent and information sharing are handled, and how inaccuracies can be challenged. Clear explanations indicate a transparent assessment process and respectful applicant treatment.
If a concern arises, the fostering service should explain it, check the underlying information and let you respond. Your assessing social worker then considers context before recommending approval or action.
Applicants may request reasonable adjustments, understand the assessment plan, nominate an advocate where appropriate, pause or withdraw their application, and use the fostering service’s complaints procedure if concerns remain unresolved.
Their validity depends on the check and the fostering service’s policy. Ask whether updated DBS, medical, references or household checks are needed before approval or placement, and any renewal arrangements.
Checks may extend beyond applicants to household members aged 16 or over, including children and regular residents. Clarify how visitors, lodgers, partners and shared-care arrangements affect assessment requirements in practice.
The points below explain what each stage of foster care checks is designed to establish, what information applicants may need to provide, and why the detail matters when suitability for fostering is assessed.
This checks relevant criminal record information and helps the fostering service consider whether any convictions or cautions affect your suitability to foster. Full disclosure allows the assessment to consider context rather than incomplete information.
These checks identify relevant information held by local authorities, which may include records connected with children or safeguarding. They help the service assess risks that may not appear on a criminal record check alone.
Proof of identity and residential history confirms who is applying and where they have lived. Providing consistent documents helps the fostering service verify your circumstances and complete the assessment accurately.
People aged 16 or over who live in, or regularly spend time in, your household may need appropriate checks. This helps assess the wider household environment in which a fostered child would be living.
Personal and professional referees provide independent information about your relationships, reliability and experience. Choosing people who know you well can help the assessing social worker build a balanced picture of your suitability.
Information about work, income and financial commitments helps establish whether your household can manage the practical responsibilities of fostering. It also supports discussion about how fostering would fit alongside employment and family life.
A medical assessment considers whether your physical and mental health is compatible with fostering and the needs of a child. It helps identify any support, adjustments or further information that should be considered during the assessment.
Checks are considered alongside interviews, training and evidence about your relationships, experience and capacity to care. This wider assessment means suitability is judged on your circumstances as a whole, not on one document or check in isolation.
Foster care checks are not a single test or a personal licence. They form part of an assessment by a fostering service, which gathers evidence about your suitability before approval. The process protects children and gives applicants an opportunity to explain their circumstances.
Applicants should receive clear information about the checks requested, provide consent where required and disclose relevant details fully. If a report contains information you do not understand, ask the assessing social worker to explain its relevance and how it will be considered. Correcting factual errors is important.
You can also ask about the assessment timetable, decision-making stages and what happens if your circumstances change. Keep copies of documents and raise concerns promptly with your fostering service. Independent advice may be appropriate if you need help understanding a decision or your rights during the application.
A fostering service does not issue a personal licence; approval follows statutory checks, assessment, preparation and a suitability decision setting appropriate fostering terms for each household.
Possibly. You must disclose convictions, cautions and relevant police information. The fostering service assesses seriousness, relevance, age and circumstances; some offences may prevent approval, while others may not prevent approval.
A medical assessment reviews your health, including conditions or limitations relevant to fostering, and considers whether you can safely meet children’s needs alongside other suitability evidence overall.
References are assessed for reliability, relevance and insight into your suitability to foster. Referees may discuss relationships, childcare experience, responsibility and household circumstances, with concerns explored fairly, carefully, before approval.
Local authority checks ask councils for relevant information about you and household members, including child protection concerns and previous involvement with children’s services. You should explain any matters identified fully.
If you are unsure how your circumstances may affect foster care checks, speak with our team for an informal discussion. Ask questions, clarify the evidence required and understand your options before deciding whether to begin an application.