Ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections in Wales, we’re delighted to share our manifesto which sets out our top campaign priorities to improve the lives of children in foster care. It was shaped through focus groups with our members and our State of the Nations’ 2024 survey.
The number of children in care in Wales is continuing to rise each year. 7,200 children were in the care system in Wales in 2024 and around two thirds living in foster care.
We are calling on all political parties to:
1. Focus on care experienced children and young people
Children and young people should be at the centre of decisions that affect their lives. We believe that by adopting Bil Pob Plentyn (a legislative proposal for an Act that would benefit every child in Wales), parties would be able to ensure children’s voices are always heard, protected and supported and more fully realise the rights of babies, children and young people as set out in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Our 2024 State of the Nations’ survey in Wales found that only 43% of foster carers were in a good location for the child they were most recently matched with to stay at the same school, and 73% in a good location for the child to maintain links with family and friends, both down from 2021. This means that many babies, children and young people are living somewhere that does not meet their needs.
We need all parties to ensure there is a diverse pool of foster carers who can support children to nurture and maintain positive lifelong relationships and remain close to their communities.
We also want to see all young people have the security and stability to stay in their foster home until 25 and ensure this is fully funded.
2. Support foster carers
To support babies, children and young people to thrive, our vision is that all foster carers should be regarded as equal and valued members of the team around the child.
Foster carers provide stable, loving and supportive homes for children and young people 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week, but we do not have enough and sadly too many are leaving each year. According to our State of the Nations’ survey, this is due to lack of sufficient support, including financial renumeration, and feeling they are not respected in the team around the child.
Foster carers are receiving differing and inadequate financial support across Wales, based on their location and service. We are encouraging parties to act to harmonise allowances, introduce a national recommended fee framework and a pension scheme that can be rolled out across Wales so that all foster carers are renumerated and valued equally.
We want to see all foster carers receive therapeutic, peer and out of hours support so that they are better supported to provide excellent and necessary care for their foster children.
3. Invest in and reform the wider system supporting children and young people with care experience
The children’s social care system is currently in crisis. More children than ever are coming into care and at the same time early intervention funding has been cut over the last decade.
For foster carers to be able to provide young people the best support they can, we need a well-funded children’s social care system that truly values foster care and can support families at the point of need before their needs escalate.
We are calling for significant investment into early intervention services, such as our Step Up Step Down programme. Many foster carers experience a high turnover of social workers which impacts the support available to them. We want to see the introduction of legislative measures to address social worker turnover and caseloads to help resolve these difficulties.
The wider system also needs to be reformed to challenge the stigma that continue to exist for care experienced children, such as making care experience a protected characteristic, and making the Corporate Parenting Charter mandatory for all relevant public bodies. This would help to address the discrimination faced by care experienced people throughout their lifetime, including When I’m Ready care and post leaving care.
With the right support, every child and young person with care experience can thrive in foster care. The Fostering Network is calling on all political parties to commit to taking bold, urgent action to tackle the challenges care experienced children, young people and foster carers are facing. Our manifesto provides achievable solutions to meet these goals.
How we are using our manifesto
We have sent our manifesto to all political parties who are developing their own manifestos and will be working with them in the run up to the Senedd elections in March 2026 to ensure that improving children’s social care system and fostering is a top priority in Wales.
Share our manifesto with candidates that come to your doorstep to ask them how to improve fostering!
