Who can apply for voluntary foster care?

Anyone who meets the legal and fostering service requirements can apply for voluntary foster care. Approval is not based on one factor alone: the service will consider your health, circumstances, household, experience, safeguarding background and ability to meet a child’s needs through an individual assessment.

You do not need to be an experienced foster carer to make an application. Relevant experience may come from parenting, caring for relatives, working with children or young people, education, health and social care, youth work, or community activities. However, experience is considered alongside your capacity to learn, reflect and work with social workers, schools, birth families and other professionals.

Applicants are generally expected to demonstrate the following:

• Physical and emotional capacity: you should be able to provide consistent care, respond to challenging situations and support a child’s development. A medical assessment helps establish whether fostering is suitable for you; a disability or health condition is not automatically a reason for refusal.
• A safe and stable household: everyone living in the home will be considered because fostering affects the whole household. The views and needs of existing children, partners or other household members form part of the assessment.
• Sound safeguarding judgement: background checks and references are used to identify any concerns relevant to caring for children. A previous conviction does not necessarily prevent an application, although offences involving children or serious safeguarding risks can affect eligibility and must be disclosed.
• Financial stability: you need to manage your existing financial commitments without relying on fostering payments to resolve financial difficulties. The assessment looks at your overall circumstances rather than treating fostering as an employment alternative.
• Reliability and cooperation: foster carers must keep information confidential, attend meetings, maintain records and work within agreed plans. You must be willing to communicate openly and follow safeguarding procedures.
• Commitment to a child’s identity: applicants should be prepared to respect and promote a child’s family relationships, culture, religion, language, sexuality and personal history where this is consistent with the child’s welfare and agreed care plan.

Your household’s circumstances do not have to be identical to another foster carer’s. For example, applicants may have different family structures, cultural backgrounds, employment arrangements or caring experience. The key issue is whether the proposed arrangement can provide safe, dependable and appropriate care for a particular child or group of children.

Some circumstances require further discussion before an application can progress. These may include major changes at home, unresolved health concerns, significant financial difficulties, serious issues identified in checks, or another fostering or adoption assessment taking place at the same time. If you are already approved by a different fostering service, you will normally need to discuss a transfer or resignation process rather than seeking approval from two services at once.

The application process usually starts with an initial conversation so that the service can understand your circumstances and explain what fostering involves. If you decide to proceed, you will complete an application and provide information for statutory checks, references and household assessments. You will also take part in preparation and assessment activities designed to consider your skills, understanding and suitability.

Approval is a formal decision based on the completed assessment, supporting evidence and the types of placements that could safely be offered. Being eligible to apply does not guarantee approval, and approval may be limited according to the ages, numbers or needs of children the service considers you able to care for.

If you are unsure whether a health condition, criminal record, living arrangement, employment pattern or previous fostering experience affects your eligibility, it is better to raise it at the beginning. Clear information allows the fostering service to give accurate guidance and identify any evidence or additional assessment that may be needed.