The flagship process guide
How to become a foster carer
Most people take two to five years between first thinking about fostering and being approved, and formal assessment once you apply typically runs around six to eight months - both are normal, and neither means you're behind.
Written by Sam Allcock · Last updated 24 August 2026
typical time from first thinking about fostering to being approved
Source: Ipsos/DfE, July 2023
typical length of formal assessment once you apply
Source: Ipsos/DfE research and standard fostering service process timelines
of initial enquiries nationally become approved foster carers
Source: Ipsos/DfE, July 2023, year to 31 March 2022
The process, step by step
Every local authority and agency runs its own version of this, but the shape is consistent across the sector.
1. First enquiry
You contact a local authority or an agency, usually online or by phone, and have an initial conversation about your circumstances and what fostering involves. Nothing is decided at this stage - it's genuinely just a conversation.
2. Initial visit
A social worker visits your home to talk through your situation in more depth and answer your questions. This is the point many people decide the timing isn't right yet, which is a completely normal outcome, not a rejection.
3. Formal application
If you decide to go ahead, you submit a formal application. This starts the official checks: an enhanced DBS check, a medical assessment, and references, including from an ex-partner if you have children from a previous relationship.
4. Assessment
A social worker carries out a detailed assessment of your household over several months, including further home visits, training, and checks with other agencies involved in your life, such as your GP and, where relevant, your local council's housing and education services. This stage is built around a report called Form F - see our full stage-by-stage assessment guide for exactly what's checked and the honest timescale.
5. Panel and approval
Your completed assessment goes to an independent fostering panel, which recommends whether you should be approved, and as what type of carer. The final decision is made by the service's agency decision maker, not the panel itself.
6. Approval, and then a first placement
Being approved doesn't mean a child is placed with you immediately - placements are matched to your approval and your household's circumstances, and how long that takes varies. We haven't found a reliable national figure for typical time-to-first- placement, so we won't invent one; ask your service directly what to expect.
The 6% conversion reality, and what it actually means
Nationally, only about 6% of initial enquiries become approved foster carers, according to Department for Education-commissioned research - a figure that sounds alarming out of context, but means something different once you understand how it's built.
| Stage | Rate | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries → applications, local authorities | ≈12% | Benchmark average across sampled LAs |
| Enquiries → applications, agencies | ≈4% | Benchmark average across sampled IFAs |
| Applications → approval, national | ≈28% | Applications that go on to be approved |
| Applications completed, Ofsted 2023/24 | 65% | 5,535 of 8,485 applications received |
| Approved, of completed applications | 33% | 1,815 approved |
| Withdrawn, of completed applications | 66% | 3,670 withdrawn |
| Formally rejected | 1% | Just 50 applications |
Sources: Ipsos UK/DfE, "Foster carer recruitment and conversion rates," July 2023, Appendix 1; Ofsted, "Fostering in England 2023-24."
Notice that formal rejection is rare - just 1% of completed applications. Most of the drop-off happens through withdrawal, and withdrawal isn't the same thing as failure.
Under current regulation, only the applicant can formally withdraw at the second assessment stage - so an application that a service has effectively steered away from approving is still recorded as "withdrawn," which inflates the withdrawal rate and understates how the process actually filters people. Ofsted's own researchers and the services themselves acknowledge this data is genuinely unreliable and inconsistently defined across services, which is a real limitation of the official statistics, not a criticism this site is making up.
Why enquiries stall, honestly
The same DfE research identifies specific, verbatim reasons enquiries don't convert - and most of them are fixable with better information, which is a large part of why this site exists.
- Not understanding the foster carer role or the eligibility criteria properly
- The process feeling invasive, particularly the depth of the background checks
- Eligibility checks that are stricter, or more strictly interpreted, than the actual national guidance requires
- A change in personal circumstances during a long process
- Enquiring at multiple agencies at once, which counts as several separate "enquiries" in the data even though it's one person
- Slow or no reply from the service, especially during high-volume periods
- Digital marketing generating large numbers of low-intent "soft" enquiries - a click or a form-fill - that were never likely to convert regardless of process quality
Source: Ipsos UK/DfE, "Foster carer recruitment and conversion rates," July 2023, chapters 3-5.
Local authority or agency for your application
Which route you apply through changes both your likely conversion rate and the kind of support you get along the way - local authorities convert enquiries to applications at roughly three times the rate agencies do, though agencies are approving a larger share of newly approved mainstream carers overall.
This is exactly the kind of decision that benefits from a neutral comparison rather than either side's own marketing - see our full, neutral council vs agency guide.
If you're supporting a relative's child rather than starting from scratch, the process and the money both work differently - see our kinship care guide. And if you think something about your circumstances rules you out, check our eligibility myth-busting guide before you assume so.
Keep reading
Check if you could foster
No personal details needed. This is a quick self-check, not an assessment - only a registered service can tell you whether you'd be approved.