February 9th-15th 2026 sees the return of The Place to Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. The theme for this year is This Is My Place with a focus on supporting the systems around children to help them feel they belong.


Promoting a sense of belonging
There have been a number of theories and models published over many years which explore the benefits of children feeling that they belong including Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1957) and Belongingness Hypothesis (Baumeister & Leary 1995). It’s widely recognised across the health and social care professions that promoting a sense of belonging is not only required to help a child reach their full potential but is essential for a child’s overall emotional and physiological health. Research studies and findings demonstrate that when children feel connected, accepted, and valued within their family, school, and community – they are better able to form secure relationships, which supports healthy emotional development and positive self-esteem. A strong sense of belonging also reduces stress and anxiety, lowering cortisol levels and supporting healthy brain development, sleep, and immune functioning.

Creating environments where children and young people feel they truly belong can provide the foundation needed for both emotional stability and overall physiological wellbeing. Foster carers can play a crucial role in promoting and developing this sense of belonging by intentionally creating opportunities for connection, inclusion, and developing a shared identity. 

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The Government has recently published a new national action plan, ‘Renewing Fostering: homes for 10,000 more children’, setting out how it intends to reform fostering and make it more accessible across England.

At The Children’s Family Trust, we welcome the ambition behind this plan. Like many fostering charities, we see first-hand the growing need for more safe, loving foster homes – especially for children who need to stay close to their communities, schools and siblings.

So what does this plan actually mean, and how could it affect fostering charities like ours?

Why fostering reform matters
The action plan acknowledges something the sector has been saying for years – there simply are not enough foster carers. As a result, too many children are placed far from home or in residential settings when a family environment would better meet their needs.

The Government’s commitment to creating 10,000 more foster homes recognises that foster carers are central to improving outcomes for children and young people. Importantly, the plan also recognises that recruitment alone is not enough – carers need the right support to stay.

 What this means for The Children's Family Trust
 As a fostering charity, our focus has always been on relationships, stability and high-quality support. Several aspects of the action plan strongly align with how we already work:

• Greater recognition of support and retention – The plan highlights the importance of training, peer support and ongoing guidance for carers. This reflects our belief that foster carers thrive when they feel valued, listened to and well supported.
• Reducing unnecessary barriers – Proposed changes to assessment processes and outdated rules aim to make fostering more accessible, without compromising safety. This could help more people progress through the fostering journey with confidence.
• Increased collaboration – Investment in regional working and shared recruitment could strengthen local placement options and help charities like ours continue to offer personalised, community-based care.

While some changes will take time to implement, the direction of travel is encouraging - towards a fostering system that is more flexible, fair and focused on children’s real lives.

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The UK government has announced a new package of reforms aimed at tackling the ongoing decline in foster carer numbers across England and increasing the availability of loving, stable homes for children in care.  

The initiative is backed by £88 million in funding, aiming to recruit thousands of new foster carers, remove outdated barriers to fostering, broaden eligibility and improve support for existing carers. 

At Fair Ways, fostering lies at the heart of who we are. Since 2002 we have been providing high-quality fostering services across Hampshire and surrounding counties. Helping children to feel safe, supported and loved through life’s most challenging moments. As a charity, we reinvest into services to improve outcomes for children in care, and our fostering service is underpinned by expert, trauma-informed support.  

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Thousands more children in the social care system in England will grow up in loving and supportive homes, under government plans to recruit up to 10,000 new foster carers this parliament, giving more children the best possible start in life and opening up opportunity for every young person regardless of their background.  

A major recruitment drive, proposed by Government today, will tackle the critical shortage of foster carers in England, where approved carer numbers have fallen sharply, while the number of children in care has risen.  

This shortage means too many children are placed far from home or end up in residential care, where they often face struggles in school, health difficulties and even exploitation or exposure to criminal activity.  

The plans will be backed by £88 million of funding to support foster carers and the network of frontline services that support them. It also means better support for existing foster carers, including clarity on the help available, assistance with home improvements, and access to peer support and advice through regional fostering hubs. 

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Following the government's announcement of planned improvements to foster care in the UK, Brenda Farrell, Barnardo's UK director of fostering, adoption and children in care, has released a statement.

She said: said: “Every child deserves a loving, safe home. Fostering has been facing a looming crisis for a number of years, with more and more children coming into care and fewer people to offer them a place to call home.

“We are pleased to see the government taking vital action and setting ambitious targets - but we must make sure that foster carers, the people who open their homes and dedicate their lives to children, are central to shaping any new policies. Their insight, experience and compassion must help drive the change that is so urgently needed.

“At Barnardo’s, we have been helping children find loving foster families for almost 100 years, so we look forward to working with the government and other partners to develop these plans and make sure they lead to urgent improvements.”  

Source: https://www.barnardos.org.uk

Marie and Chet.
Why did you become foster carers?
We became foster carers because we wanted to make a difference to children’s lives and help children who face challenges in life.

On reflection of my own childhood experiences, both Marie and I felt the need to provide a safe and loving environment for children, despite our busy jobs.

Lucas and Adam
Adam and Lucas started their fostering journey after being introduced to New Routes by Adam’s auntie, who had been fostering with us for over 20 years. 

Adam said “For us, it was really important to play a part in providing a safe and happy environment for children.

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Dave and Mary live in Birmingham and have been Foster Carers with FCC since 2005. They have fostered many children on a long term basis.  Dave has also been a trainer for the Skills to Foster course that FCC run for all new carers. 


When our youngest son was born visually impaired, my wife and I contemplated seeking some respite care. Whilst exploring this we discovered that there was a need for other children to be cared for. We initially registered with a Local Authority to provide weekend respite care for physically disabled young people.

Prior to retiring from the Police I had made plans to travel for an extended period of time, so we decided we would suspend fostering for a while to get travelling out of our system, and then on our return go for longer term foster placements.
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We’re incredibly proud to share that Fair Ways has won Community Project of the Year at the Action Hampshire Changemakers Awards, in recognition of our Fostering Friendly Employers campaign. The award also celebrates the leadership of our Managing Director, Gareth Webb, who led the project from its inception.

The Fostering Friendly Employers campaign has brought together 116 local employers, helping to make Portsmouth the UK’s first Fostering Friendly city. The initiative encourages employers to offer meaningful, practical workplace support to foster carers, enabling them to balance employment with the vital role they play in caring for children and young people.

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On 26 January, our campaigns team submitted a joint briefing to Peers in the House of Lords ahead of key debates on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. 

Alongside BASW, NYAS, Become, Article 39, TACT and Settle, we highlighted the urgent need to end the continued and illegal use of unregistered accommodation for children in care.

Read the full briefing here: 
cdn.togethertrust.org.uk/uploads/2026/01/Briefing-Ending-Unregistered-Homes-for-Children-in-Care.pdf

In this blog, I outline the current situation with illegal accommodation for children in care, summarise what we asked Peers in our briefing, and explain the next steps as the Bill progresses. 

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New Ofsted data shows ‘vulnerable’ children in care are being “regularly put at risk” in a “dysfunctional system” which has seen hundreds placed in unregistered homes for months. 
 
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) branded it “unacceptable” that some 800 children had been placed in such homes for an average of six months each. 

Lynn Perry, Barnardo’s CEO says, “No child should be made to live in an unsuitable environment, including illegal, unregistered homes. These situations can be scary, force children to move far away from their home base and community, and cut children off from friends and family, resulting in them feeling lonely and isolated. "

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