We recently worked with foster carer and fostering service members of The Fostering Network to gather their views on Ofsted's recent consultation on improving the way it inspects social care.
While there was broad support for many of the proposals, a clear message emerged throughout: inspections must better reflect the realities of fostering and the experiences of the people who make it possible.
The consultation, launched in July 2026, included proposals such as:
- Considering enduring relationships and engagement with children and foster carers within both the framework for inspecting local authority children's services (ILACS) and the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF)
- How local authority leaders are meeting their sufficiency duty.
- Introducing a new evaluation area within the SCCIF focused on the recruitment, assessment and support of foster carers
We've outlined the key themes raised by members, which have been included in our final response to Ofsted.
Putting foster carers’ voices at the heart of inspections
One of the strongest themes from our members was the need for inspections to engage meaningfully with foster carers.
Foster carers see first-hand how policies, processes and services affect children every day. They know when support is working well, when systems create barriers, and when children are not getting what they need. Our members felt inspections should go beyond checking whether policies exist on paper and instead explore whether children and foster carers experience those services as effective, timely and supportive.
Many also highlighted the important role of Foster Carer Associations and forums. Making engagement with these groups a routine part of inspections would help ensure inspectors hear a broad range of perspectives and experiences from across the fostering community.
Focusing on enduring relationships
We strongly welcomed Ofsted’s proposal to include enduring relationships within both ILACS and SCCIF inspections.
For children in care, stable and loving relationships provide the foundations for wellbeing, identity and long-term success. Foster carers are often at the centre of these relationships, offering children consistency, support and a sense of belonging.
However, members from our IFP steering group were clear that maintaining important relationships is rarely the responsibility of one organisation alone and can be particularly difficult for those in IFAs as local authorities hold the responsibility for the child. Decisions about care planning, reunification, placement moves and permanence often sit elsewhere within the local authority from the fostering team. Inspections should therefore consider how effectively fostering services, local authorities and wider partners such as IFAs work together to support and preserve these relationships.
Members also stressed that enduring relationships extend far beyond the relationship between a child and their foster carer. For many children, the people who matter most may include foster siblings, extended foster family members, birth relatives, friends, former carers and other trusted adults. Inspection frameworks should reflect this broader understanding of the relationships that help children thrive.
Voice of children and young people in inspections
Members welcomed Ofsted's increased focus on children's voices but stressed that inspections should look beyond whether children are asked for their views. What matters is whether those views influence care planning, decision-making and service development.
Many fostering services support participation through children's councils, participation groups and dedicated participation workers. Inspections should consider how services respond to children's feedback and demonstrate the changes that have resulted from it.
Recognising fostering as a core part of children’s social care
We welcomed Ofsted’s ambition to take a more integrated approach to inspection and encouraged greater recognition of fostering within the wider children's social care system during the ILACS inspection.
Too often, fostering can be viewed as a separate service rather than a central part of local authorities’ corporate parenting responsibilities. Our response emphasised that fostering expertise should inform strategic decision-making at every level.
This includes examining how senior leaders value and support fostering services, and how effectively social workers, commissioners, fostering teams and foster carers work together to improve outcomes for children.
Members also emphasised that the success of the proposed reforms will depend on effective inspector training and consistent application of the revised framework. We encouraged Ofsted to strengthen inspectors' understanding of fostering practice and The Fostering Network is keen to work with Ofsted as these changes are developed and implemented.
Tackling sufficiency and placement shortages
Finding the right home for every child remains one of the biggest challenges facing the sector.
Our members welcomed the increased focus on sufficiency, highlighting the need for inspections to examine how local authorities are meeting their duty to ensure enough suitable placements are available for children who need them.
We also stressed that improving sufficiency is impossible without addressing foster carer recruitment and retention. The availability of the right homes depends on the sector's ability to attract, support and retain enough foster carers to meet growing demand. The quality of post-approval support, training, supervision and inclusion of foster carers as valued members of the team around the child all contribute to whether foster carers remain in the role.
There therefore needs to be a greater focus on retention as well as recruitment as part of the Government’s fostering reforms.
Foster carer recruitment and support
One of the most significant SCCIF proposals is the creation of a dedicated evaluation area focused on foster carer recruitment, assessment and support.
We strongly welcome this change. Foster carers are central to children’s experiences of care, and the quality of recruitment, training and ongoing support has a direct impact on outcomes for children.
We also believe there should be a stronger emphasis on foster carer retention within this evaluation area. Recruitment remains important, but in the context of ongoing sufficiency challenges, retaining skilled and experienced foster carers is equally critical.
However, members also highlighted the need for greater parity between independent fostering agencies and local authority fostering services. Fostering should be recognised as a core part of effective corporate parenting across all inspection frameworks in both local authorities and IFAs, not treated as a separate specialist area.
Moving beyond a single headline judgement
Finally, we welcomed the proposal to remove the overall experiences and progress judgement from SCCIF inspections.
Members felt that a single headline rating can sometimes oversimplify complex inspection findings and risk one area overshadowing strengths elsewhere. A more nuanced approach would help provide a fuller picture of where services are performing well and where improvements are needed, supporting learning and continuous improvement across the sector.
Linking with other fostering reforms
Local authority members highlighted the need for clarity on how inspection accountability will operate for local authorities whose recruitment, retention and placement functions will be delivered through Regional Care Cooperatives or fostering hubs (particularly if this would involve RCCs being inspected under SCCIFs). This would ensure responsibilities remain transparent and children continue to receive effective corporate parenting.
Looking ahead
Overall, our members welcomed many of Ofsted’s proposed changes. The consultation presents a real opportunity to create an inspection framework that better reflects the realities of fostering, values the voices of children and foster carers, and recognises the importance of relationships, sufficiency and support.
Above all, inspections should focus on what matters most: ensuring children have the stability, care, support and relationships they need to thrive.
