This week, Sarah and Louise go full investigative mode on a brutal few days for foster carers, and the uncomfortable truths that slipped out of power.

After the now viral “you don’t work / it’s not a job” moment exposed what the government really thinks of carers, they unpack why this isn’t just offensive, it’s catastrophic for retention, recruitment, and trust in the system. From a hastily arranged DfE/TFN webinar that felt more like stage-managed theatre than genuine consultation, to inflated attendance figures, familiar talking points, and the same old “nothing new” reform scripts… the gaslighting is getting harder to ignore.

They also dig into the quietly terrifying suggestion to remove Supervising Social Workers and replace them with children’s social workers, presented as an “innovation” that carers will apparently love. Spoiler: carers consistently say the SSW is their strongest professional relationship. So who exactly is advising this, and why does it feel like policy creep in real time?

Then it’s onto recruitment marketing, the cupcakes and sprinkles fantasy of fostering ads, the infantilisation of carers, the “all you need is love and a spare room” nonsense, and how this kind of messaging lowers standards, misleads the public, and damages children.

Angry. Informed. Uncomfortable listening. This one’s a journalistic analysis of how the system performs care while quietly dismantling the workforce that holds it together.

Contact: info@fosterwiki.com

Centre for Homelessness Impact:

[Sanders, Michael, Vanessa Hirneis, Kira Ewanich and Vanessa Picker. The Impacts of the Mockingbird Family Model for Young People Leaving Care An Evaluation Using Matching and Difference-in-Differences. London, United Kingdom: Centre for Homelessness Impact. 2025. www.homelessnessimpact.o/rg/publication/mockingbird-the-family-model-for-young-people-leaving-care. last accessed 18/02/2026]

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.

This week, Sarah and Louise don’t soften a single edge.

They dismantle the government’s latest fostering “reforms” piece by piece, not the press release version, but the reality behind it. The language. The choreography. The careful tone. And what it’s really doing.

They unpack the surge of anger across the workforce, but more importantly, the shift from emotion to evidence. Foster carers aren’t just frustrated anymore. They’re informed, organised, and increasingly unwilling to be patronised. That changes the balance of power.

They ask whether the consultation is genuine or a containment measure. Whether reassurance is masking consolidation. And why a ministerial narrative that reframes fostering away from work looks less like clarity and more like strategy.

Above all, they centre the question that keeps getting edged out: what does any of this mean for the children, and for the people carrying the emotional and practical weight of their care every single day?

Because if reform feels distant from the homes where care actually happens, it isn’t renewal.

It’s control.

Contact: info@fosterwiki.com

Political Theatre, Permanent Damage | FosterWiki

Why I Turned Down the Minister | FosterWiki

Statistic check: "The IFA sector accounts for 45% of mainstream households, and since 2021, the proportion of IFA mainstream households has steadily increased. For the first time since 2021, there has been a slight increase in the number of IFA households; however, it has not been enough to offset the decline in local authority households. Between 2021 and 2025, the number of approved or newly approved mainstream local authority households has fallen by 14%." [Accredited official statistics Main findings: fostering in England 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 Published 26 November 2025]

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.

This week, Sarah and Louise kick off a hard-hitting series on allegations against foster carers.

We unpack why these claims aren’t just a carer problem.

They’re a system-wide crisis affecting recruitment, retention, and children’s lives.

From the shocking numbers that rarely get shared to the step-by-step failures of the allegations process, we explore the real impact on safeguarding, on carers' mental health, families, and livelihoods. This is just the first episode, and we’ll continue to dig deeper, call out bad practice, and discuss what must change if fostering is to survive.

https://fosterwiki.com/fosterwiki-support/

https://fosterwiki.com/starling/

https://education.nfcq.co.uk/nfcq-courses/allegations-the-foster-carers-perspective/

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.

This week, Sarah and Louise pull no punches. They’re calling out the foster care sector’s obsession with shiny recruitment schemes while ignoring the real fulcrum of the system: retention. From exposing local authorities’ latest “retention” gimmicks to unpicking a decade-old policy disaster that still fails carers and children today, nothing is off-limits.

Sarah takes us back to the 2014 Staying Put launch, where politicians were blindsided by the reality of policy, and shows how nothing has changed 12 years later. Louise dives into Somerset’s PR spin versus real-world losses, while Sarah critically analyses Nottingham’s LinkedIn updates, separating the polished messaging from the reality experienced by carers on the frontline.

They also lift the lid on the so-called “Mockingbird” solution, a model that captures only 4% of the workforce but consumes millions in public money, leaving the rest of the carers invisible.

No sugar coating, no polite headlines, just the frontline truth about what carers actually need, and why everything collapses when retention is ignored. If you care about real change in foster care, you can’t afford to miss this one.

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.

In this episode of Foster Care Uncovered, Sarah and Louise delve into the shocking new report from the Children’s Commissioner, which reveals the harsh reality many children in foster care face today. From illegal and unsafe placements to carers under extreme pressure, this report lays bare systemic failures that can no longer be ignored.

Sarah and Louise break down the report, share frontline insights, and discuss what can and must be done to protect vulnerable children. They also explain what FosterWiki is doing to support carers and improve outcomes, and give practical steps for listeners who want to make a real difference.

This isn’t just a conversation, it’s a call to action.

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.

FosterWiki.com

nfcq.co.uk

Children's Commissioner report here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/children-living-in-illegal-childrens-homes/

https://www.sparksisterhood.org/

Sarah and Louise take an unapologetically unfiltered look at foster care in 2025, the achievements, the bloopers, the ‘persons’ of the year, what needed to stop, what made them laugh, the moments that kept them going, and the low points that still defy explanation.

They call out what mattered, dismantle what didn’t, and interrogate the absurdities. Looking to 2026, they ask the questions the sector keeps dodging: what must stop, who needs to step up, what should be gone, and whether this might finally be the year we stop performing care and start prioritising children.

Sharp, reflective, and darkly funny. Foster care, without the gloss, the jargon, or the pretending.

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.

A Foster Care Uncovered Christmas Special

Festive hats on, rose-tinted myths off.

In this Christmas special, we take a tongue-in-cheek but honest look at support during the festive period. Alongside plenty of foster carer humour, Louise reflects on Christmas at 16 after running away, and we explore trauma, contact, cost-of-living pressures, and the realities of Christmas for children in care.

Plus, a cheeky look at “top tips for Christmas” written by people who’ve never fostered.

Funny, thoughtful, and unapologetically real.

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.

In this episode, Sarah and Louise sit down with social worker Nana Abbey-Hagen, a practitioner who moves fluently between frontline reality, leadership conversations, and the community spaces where social work and lived experience intersect.

Nana talks candidly about working conditions for social workers and whether those pressures ripple into foster care. We explore his work with the Chief Social Worker, Isabelle Trowler, and dig into the long-standing cultural gap between leadership and frontline practice, a gap foster carers know all too well.

He talks about his Street Social Work Practice Model: why he created it, the blind spots it exposes, and how it reconnects practice with the real lives of children, families, and carers.

We wrap with his vision for the future of social work and what that future means for foster carers on the ground.

A grounded, honest conversation that pushes past the corporate narrative and into the truth of what’s really happening.