The Department for Education is analysing feedback from anyone working in fostering or related areas and people with lived experience of fostering to feed into updated fostering national minimum standards.
- The draft introduces two connected sets of standards: seven Fostering Quality Standards for services (They will replace the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services 2011) and seven Foster Carer Development Standards covering what carers should know and do in their first year (These will replace the TSD standards 2012).
- Its central test is whether fostering practice creates a safe, stable and loving home, built around enduring relationships, identity, belonging and the child’s wider support network.
- There are some significant changes from the NMS for fostering 2001 draft and the 2011 fostering standards.
- The standards define what good outcomes look like, not one prescribed model of family life or service delivery; services should support diverse households and innovate without compromising safety.
- Safeguarding should rely on clear expectations, trusted relationships and prompt, fair responses to concerns, rather than excessive process or documentation.
- Services—not carers alone—are accountable for providing proportionate assessment, training, supervision and practical support, with quality judged by the difference made to children’s lives.