Children’s Minister On Foster Reform with Josh MacAlister OBE MP

Family Talk host Lucy Johnston interviewed Josh MacAlister OBE MP at Westminster

A System That Can Miss What Matters Most

The Children’s Minister has vowed to scrap red tape in a drive to create an army of foster carers, after it emerged that even having the “wrong” type of freezer could bar someone from fostering a child.

In an in-depth interview, Josh MacAlister said Britain has built a system that prizes box-ticking over belonging.

Why This Matters Now

He said a shortage of foster carers means increasing numbers of vulnerable children are being shipped miles from home, torn away from schools and pushed into costly residential homes because there are not enough foster families.

Increasing numbers are also placed in unregulated or badly run homes where they are exposed to exploitation and criminal activity.

10,000 New Foster Carers

Mr MacAlister spoke as he announced plans to recruit 10,000 new foster carers, giving more children the chance of a loving home and greater choice about where they live.

Mr MacAlister, who led the 2022 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, said rigid rules - including lack of space, vaping and even owning a chest freezer - have been used to bar people from becoming foster parents.

When “Rules” Become Barriers

“I met and spoke to a family who had a chest freezer and were told that they needed to get rid of it,” he said.

The rule, he suggested, may have stemmed from a single historic incident but has since hardened into an automatic barrier.

“It may have come from thinking that something happened once with a chest freezer,” he said. “But if you keep making new rules… that isn’t human. That isn’t common sense.

“These things on their own are no reason to rule anybody out from fostering.”

Who Gets Turned Away, and Why

Mr MacAlister said he has also encountered would-be carers turned away because they had therapy in the past, or because a spare bedroom was on the “wrong” floor of the house.

In some cases, he said, people have been blocked from fostering young children because a bedroom was on a different floor from the carer, or because there was no separate room available for siblings.

He said new plans will also make it easier for full-time workers to become foster carers, with clearer guidance designed to encourage people from a wider range of backgrounds to come forward.

Belonging Over Box-Ticking

Speaking on the Family Talk podcast run by children’s care service Care Visions, Mr MacAlister said: “We will look at whether or not the door lock works. But we do not check whether there are people in that young person’s life who love them.”

Speeding Up Approvals

He also said approvals for foster carers take too long. In more than half of councils, the process takes over six months, with panels that rarely reject applicants still adding weeks or months of delay.

“Ninety-eight per cent of the applications that go to panel are approved,” he said. “So you have to ask - is that worth the time?”

The Scale of the Challenge

There are currently around 83,000 children in care in England, up 25 per cent on a decade ago, with the overall cost of children’s social care forecast to reach around £15 billion a year unless reforms take hold.

At the same time, the number of approved foster carer households has fallen by around 12 per cent, to about 44,000.

Why So Many Drop Out

Around 150,000 people came forward last year to start the process, but only about 7,000 were ultimately approved, with many dropping out because the system is too bureaucratic.

The Government has pledged £88 million to help overhaul the fostering system, which Mr MacAlister believes is keeping thousands of loving families from fostering children.

What the Reform Plan Could Change

Under the drive, ministers are proposing changes that could allow single people, renters and those in full-time work to foster, removing long-standing barriers built into the system.

An action plan will also be published to improve support for carers, speed up approvals and help families take in siblings, including financial help for home improvements.

“Time to Act”

“If we have not delivered 10,000 extra foster places, then I will not have done my job,” Mr MacAlister said.

Success, he added, would mean more young people leaving care able to say: “I’ve got at least two people in my life who love me - if not a full tribe.”

“These are tangible plans,” he said. “And it is now time to act.”