The Exploitation of Foster Carers: How Has It Become Normalised?

This week, Sarah and Louise begin by unpacking the latest fostering news, including the Government's latest announcement on Regional Care Co-operatives, what it really means for foster carers, and the proposed rewrite of the National Minimum Standards. Is this genuine reform, or simply another restructure that leaves the real problems untouched?

Then they tackle one of the most uncomfortable questions the sector has ever faced: are foster carers being exploited? They explore whether decades of reforms have unintentionally created the conditions for exploitation to become normalised. As fostering has become increasingly professionalised, with more regulation, governance, commissioning and management, the role of the foster carer has remained remarkably unchanged, often still treated as though it belongs to another era.

From hidden financial costs and emotional pressure to power imbalances and a system increasingly reliant on carers' goodwill, this powerful first part of a two-part series asks whether compassion has become something the system quietly depends upon and takes for granted.

If you'd like to chat about this episode or any of our past episodes, feel free to reach out to us at info@fosterwiki.com. We’d love to hear from you!

All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

Useful Links

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FosterWiki Parental Responsibility (PR): https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/parental-responsibility-pr/

FosterWiki Delegated Authority: https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/delegated-authority/

FosterWiki Delegated Authority – Decision Support Tool: https://fosterwiki.com/assets/uploads/2021/07/Delegated-Authority-Tool-Example-Published-07-2021.pdf

This week, Sarah and Louise examine the unprecedented warning from Scotland's senior social work leaders, who’ve exposed that children are being taken home by social workers because there are no available placements. They explore how years of ignored warnings have led to this point, and why the real crisis may be retention rather than recruitment.

They also unpack the growing controversy around private equity in children's care, ask why foster carers continue to shoulder the financial risks of allegations and gaps between placements, discuss what the revised allegations toolkit really represents, and unveil The F Files, a new investigative series exploring the people, organisations and influences shaping foster care behind the scenes.

If you'd like to chat about this episode or any of our past episodes, feel free to reach out to us at info@fosterwiki.com. We’d love to hear from you!

All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

Sarah and Louise take their irreverent look and roll back the curtains on another week in fostering. They start with leadership, language, and the familiar gap between what is announced and what is actually felt in foster families. From political reshuffles to sector promises, they ask what all the noise really means for children and carers on a Tuesday afternoon when support is needed, and someone has to answer the phone.

We also turn to recent headlines that have shaken public trust and sparked uncomfortable questions about accountability, repetition, and why “lessons will be learned” still gets wheeled out as though it carries weight.

Find out who’s won this week’s coveted Naughty Step Award… and who (and what) has qualified for Word Salad Corner.

Then we head to the kitchen table itself, where fostering actually lives, not in frameworks or buzzwords, but in exhaustion, humour, repair, and relentless unpredictability. This week, we dig into what happens when theory meets real life: why behaviour is never just behaviour, why relationships carry the weight of everything, and why “good enough” is sometimes the most radical idea in the room.

If you'd like to chat about this episode or any of our past episodes, feel free to reach out to us at info@fosterwiki.com. We’d love to hear from you!

All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.