When you foster for your council, your social worker and the children’s social worker are working for the same organisation, following the same policies.

The policies are designed to work in the best interests of the children, to achieve the best outcomes for them.

This doesn’t always happen as easily with fostering agency staff, as they have to bear in mind the business objectives of their agency too.

Councils provide support and training locally. Many agency foster carers need to travel long distances for this. Lots of regional fostering agency offices have closed over the last few years, which has meant their carers need to travel even further for training and support.

Councils will nearly always try and match children with their own carers first. This is because they have recruited, assessed and trained them, therefore know how well they will be able to meet the needs of children that need to be fostered.

Council foster carers will also be local, so are able to keep children close to their friends, family and school.

There are also serious financial implications to placing children with agency foster carers (see below).

Therefore, councils only look to place children with agency foster carers when there are no suitable council carers with space. This means that agency foster carers often wait for a long time to have children placed with them, which can be very disheartening when they just want to care for children.

Councils are responsible for the care of children from newborn up to the age of 18, and aim to place all of them with their own carers. 

Foster carers are usually more likely to be able to meet the needs of younger children than older children, so it is usually older children who need to be placed with agency foster carers. Also children who have additional needs and/or challenging behaviours.

The vast majority of agencies will insist that at least one of the adult carers in a household gives up work in order to foster. This is mainly because a lot of children are placed with agency foster carers at short notice. When councils place with their own carers, they often have more time to plan the placement.

As many agency foster carers can have long gaps between children’s placements, not being able to work can put a strain on their finances.

When you foster for a council, you will be part of a large local network of foster carers, which usually have a number of formal and informal carer support groups. Agency foster carers tend to be spread over a wider area, and can often feel quite isolated as a result.

Councils are large organisations with lots of backup resources available locally. Many fostering agencies are spread across large geographical areas and aren’t always able to provide the cover needed.

The vast majority of fostering agencies are businesses which exist to provide a return to their owners/shareholders. Many of them have been bought and sold by different investors over time, and are burdened with heavy debts. This has led to concern around how viable they are, and there is a danger of them going bust, leading to disruption for children and carers.

Article: ‘Alarm bells’ over private equity foster care firms, councils warn’

Article: Two companies account for one-third of independent fostering placements, Ofsted figures show

You may see adverts from fostering agencies which draw attention to the financial rewards of fostering. On paper, they appear to pay higher allowances than those paid by councils. One thing to bear in mind is that many agency foster carers are expected to cover all the costs of fostering out of this allowance, which can soon add up.

Councils also pay expenses on top of the allowance, for things like mileage, equipment, clothing etc. In many cases this means council foster carers are actually better off.

The majority of fostering agencies are businesses. They make hundreds of millions of pounds in profit every year. Some of this will be routed offshore so that tax isn’t paid on it. This is money that could have been spent on early help and prevention, which stops children from coming into care in the first place.

Article: Top 10 children’s care providers made £300m profits

Article: Privatisation of children’s services is bad for children and bad for taxpayers

Article: The foster care business

Article: Why do we let greedy financiers profit from the pain of foster children?

Article: Private firms are making big money out of children’s social services

Article: Outsourcing children’s services isn’t just wrong – it’s a waste of money

Article: Foster care agencies join forces in £100m tie-up

Article: Private equity involvement in care placements needs reviewing amid concerning profit and debt levels

The number of children coming into care is continuing to rise. They need foster carers who can provide them with safe, stable and secure homes. 

The best route to fostering local children is through your council or the organisation they own. Speak to them and let them guide you through the process.