East Midlands councils see boost in foster carers after recruitment drive

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE county council has had more foster carers joining the service than leaving for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the past six months, fewer foster carers left the council, with a rise in applications and approvals. It has resulted in an increase in foster carers in March 2025 – the first rise since before the pandemic, the authority said.

Nottinghamshire county council, Nottingham city council, Derbyshire county council and Derby city council are currently running a joint campaign to recruit more foster carers for the local authorities.

Its new name is ‘Foster for East Midlands Councils’. It was originally launched in March 2024, with money coming from the four member councils and the Department for Education.

An update on the project was discussed in Nottinghamshire county council’s corporate parenting panel last Tuesday (1).

The meeting was told the scheme will now be funded for the next year until March 2026.

Councillor Mike Introna (Con) said efforts to increase fostering in the county are “going in the right direction”.

He said: “[We’ve] got a considerably higher number of people across hurdles to become foster parents”, and wondered if more could be done to support foster carers and encourage others to sign up to the service.

“Stuff like free bus travel, possible assistance with healthcare, maybe long service payments, or accrue a payment each year you’re a foster carer,” he said.

Councillor Anne Callaghan (Lab) said: “How can we incentivise [fostering]? It might be looking at increasing pay, looking at further training, a pension scheme.”

As of last Thursday (3), there were 187 foster carers working for the council’s service compared to 194 this time last year, but there were also 59 fewer looked after children in the council’s care with 900 currently.

On the importance of children in care being cared for in a home environment, Callaghan said: “We do have quite a lot of children in care, we don’t want them out of area either, we want them close to home.

“For whatever reason family relationships broke down, these children have come into care and they still need to have their local links. Some of them still need to attend the school their friends are, that’s their one constant in their life sometimes and it’s really important.”

(Local Democracy Reporting Service)