Yesterday marked one of the most significant days for fostering policy in England for many years.

The publication of the draft National Minimum Standards and Foster Carer Development Standards, alongside confirmation of the next phase of Regional Care Cooperatives, presents a genuine opportunity to strengthen fostering for children and young people, foster carers and families, and staff.

The Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers (NAFP) welcomes the direction of travel.

Over recent years there has been growing consensus across the sector that fostering needs to evolve. Children and young people deserve greater stability, foster carers deserve greater trust and support, and services should be empowered to focus less on compliance and more on relationships.

The draft standards represent an important step in that direction.

Mark Owers, Interim CEO at NAFP, said:

“What strikes me most is the shift in philosophy. Rather than asking whether services have completed the right process, the draft increasingly asks whether children experience safe, stable and loving homes, and the enduring relationships they need to thrive. That feels like an important and welcome change.”

NAFP particularly welcomes the stronger emphasis on children’s lived experience, empowering foster carers, delegated authority, reflective supervision and continuous learning.

NAFP also believes the consultation provides an opportunity to strengthen several important areas further.

Assessment, matching and support should be viewed as a single continuous journey, helping children find not simply a placement but the family most likely to provide lasting relationships.

Education should be framed not only in terms of attendance and attainment, but also aspiration, opportunity and helping children flourish.

The standards should continue to strengthen the expectation that, wherever it is safe and in a child’s best interests, important relationships can continue beyond placement endings, reunification and transitions into adulthood.

The Foster Carer Development Standards should also reinforce that learning does not end after the first year of approval, but continues throughout a foster carer’s career as children’s needs evolve.

Regional Care Cooperatives have an equally important role to play.

NAFP believes regional collaboration has enormous potential to improve sufficiency, consistency and strategic planning across England. The opportunity now is to ensure that regional arrangements strengthen relationships rather than simply reorganise structures.

“Children don’t experience Regional Care Cooperatives, commissioning arrangements or organisational boundaries,” Owers continued. “They experience whether the adults around them work well together. They experience whether they feel safe, whether they belong and whether the important people in their lives remain alongside them. That is how these reforms should ultimately be judged.”

Over the coming weeks NAFP will consult extensively with its members before submitting a detailed response to the standards consultation.

NAFP is particularly keen to ensure the final standards are informed by the experience of the whole fostering community, including local authorities, independent fostering agencies, foster carers and, most importantly, children and young people themselves.

Around half of children living with foster families are cared for by independent fostering agencies and around half by local authorities. The future framework will be strongest if it reflects the breadth of experience across the whole sector.

“This consultation provides a genuine opportunity to shape fostering for the next decade,” said Owers. “NAFP looks forward to working constructively with Government, Regional Care Cooperatives and partners across the sector to help build a fostering system that enables more children to experience safe, stable and loving homes.”