Foster Care Uncovered

This week, Sarah and Louise tackle one of the most hidden crises in fostering, allegations against foster carers.For decades, foster carers have quietly shared stories of false or retaliatory allegations, stories that were often dismissed as overemotional or anecdotal. In this episode, they unpack the scale of the problem, over 30,000 carers have been caught in a system that can devastate careers, families, and children’s stability.Joining us is Dr Christian Harkensee, a paediatrician and Child Protection Lead, who shares his personal experience navigating a false allegation and the emotional toll it took on him and his family. Together, we explore how the system currently operates, why fear of allegations affects nearly every carer, and what could actually be done to protect carers and children alike.This episode isn’t just about the headline; it’s about understanding the systemic harm that’s quietly reshaping foster care and what must change if we want a future for fostering at all.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.If you'd like to chat about this episode or any of our past episodes, feel free to reach out to us at info@fosterwiki.com. We’d love to hear from you!

This week, Sarah and Louise take an unflinching, slightly bemused, slightly furious wander through the week’s news before getting into the topic everyone tiptoes around in fostering: money.From Josh MacAlister’s so-called “clarification” that somehow made things worse, where asking for basic rights and protections is reframed as carers wanting to “clock on”, and he quietly positions himself as the only one putting children first, to Ofsted handing out “Outstanding” while carers are furious and standards for them and their children still so poor, this episode follows the money, the spin, and the damage left behind.We get into postcode lotteries, levelling down dressed up as reform, carers topping up from their own pockets, and the quiet financial engineering hollowing out fostering from the inside.Loving children and being paid properly aren’t opposites. But pretending money doesn’t matter is how care systems rot.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualifying-care-relief-foster-carers-adult-placement-carers-kinship-carers-and-staying-put-carers-hs236-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs236-qualifying-care-relief-foster-carers-adult-placement-carers-kinship-carers-and-staying-put-carers-2025https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/workerAll views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.If you'd like to chat about this episode or any of our past episodes, feel free to reach out to us at info@fosterwiki.com. We’d love to hear from you!

This week, Sarah and Louise go full investigative mode on a brutal few days for foster carers, and the uncomfortable truths that slipped out of power.After the now viral “you don’t work / it’s not a job” moment exposed what the government really thinks of carers, they unpack why this isn’t just offensive, it’s catastrophic for retention, recruitment, and trust in the system. From a hastily arranged DfE/TFN webinar that felt more like stage-managed theatre than genuine consultation, to inflated attendance figures, familiar talking points, and the same old “nothing new” reform scripts… the gaslighting is getting harder to ignore.They also dig into the quietly terrifying suggestion to remove Supervising Social Workers and replace them with children’s social workers, presented as an “innovation” that carers will apparently love. Spoiler: carers consistently say the SSW is their strongest professional relationship. So who exactly is advising this, and why does it feel like policy creep in real time?Then it’s onto recruitment marketing, the cupcakes and sprinkles fantasy of fostering ads, the infantilisation of carers, the “all you need is love and a spare room” nonsense, and how this kind of messaging lowers standards, misleads the public, and damages children.Angry. Informed. Uncomfortable listening. This one’s a journalistic analysis of how the system performs care while quietly dismantling the workforce that holds it together.Contact: info@fosterwiki.comCentre for Homelessness Impact: [Sanders, Michael, Vanessa Hirneis, Kira Ewanich and Vanessa Picker. The Impacts of the Mockingbird Family Model for Young People Leaving Care An Evaluation Using Matching and Difference-in-Differences. London, United Kingdom: Centre for Homelessness Impact. 2025. www.homelessnessimpact.o/rg/publication/mockingbird-the-family-model-for-young-people-leaving-care. last accessed 18/02/2026]All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

This week, Sarah and Louise don’t soften a single edge.They dismantle the government’s latest fostering “reforms” piece by piece, not the press release version, but the reality behind it. The language. The choreography. The careful tone. And what it’s really doing.They unpack the surge of anger across the workforce, but more importantly, the shift from emotion to evidence. Foster carers aren’t just frustrated anymore. They’re informed, organised, and increasingly unwilling to be patronised. That changes the balance of power.They ask whether the consultation is genuine or a containment measure. Whether reassurance is masking consolidation. And why a ministerial narrative that reframes fostering away from work looks less like clarity and more like strategy.Above all, they centre the question that keeps getting edged out: what does any of this mean for the children, and for the people carrying the emotional and practical weight of their care every single day?Because if reform feels distant from the homes where care actually happens, it isn’t renewal.It’s control.Contact: info@fosterwiki.comPolitical Theatre, Permanent Damage | FosterWikiWhy I Turned Down the Minister | FosterWikiStatistic check: "The IFA sector accounts for 45% of mainstream households, and since 2021, the proportion of IFA mainstream households has steadily increased. For the first time since 2021, there has been a slight increase in the number of IFA households; however, it has not been enough to offset the decline in local authority households. Between 2021 and 2025, the number of approved or newly approved mainstream local authority households has fallen by 14%." [Accredited official statistics Main findings: fostering in England 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 Published 26 November 2025]All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

This week, Sarah and Louise kick off a hard-hitting series on allegations against foster carers. We unpack why these claims aren’t just a carer problem. They’re a system-wide crisis affecting recruitment, retention, and children’s lives. From the shocking numbers that rarely get shared to the step-by-step failures of the allegations process, we explore the real impact on safeguarding, on carers' mental health, families, and livelihoods. This is just the first episode, and we’ll continue to dig deeper, call out bad practice, and discuss what must change if fostering is to survive.https://fosterwiki.com/fosterwiki-support/https://fosterwiki.com/starling/https://education.nfcq.co.uk/nfcq-courses/allegations-the-foster-carers-perspective/All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

This week, Sarah and Louise pull no punches. They’re calling out the foster care sector’s obsession with shiny recruitment schemes while ignoring the real fulcrum of the system: retention. From exposing local authorities’ latest “retention” gimmicks to unpicking a decade-old policy disaster that still fails carers and children today, nothing is off-limits.Sarah takes us back to the 2014 Staying Put launch, where politicians were blindsided by the reality of policy, and shows how nothing has changed 12 years later. Louise dives into Somerset’s PR spin versus real-world losses, while Sarah critically analyses Nottingham’s LinkedIn updates, separating the polished messaging from the reality experienced by carers on the frontline.They also lift the lid on the so-called “Mockingbird” solution, a model that captures only 4% of the workforce but consumes millions in public money, leaving the rest of the carers invisible.No sugar coating, no polite headlines, just the frontline truth about what carers actually need, and why everything collapses when retention is ignored. If you care about real change in foster care, you can’t afford to miss this one.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

In this episode of Foster Care Uncovered, Sarah and Louise delve into the shocking new report from the Children’s Commissioner, which reveals the harsh reality many children in foster care face today. From illegal and unsafe placements to carers under extreme pressure, this report lays bare systemic failures that can no longer be ignored.Sarah and Louise break down the report, share frontline insights, and discuss what can and must be done to protect vulnerable children. They also explain what FosterWiki is doing to support carers and improve outcomes, and give practical steps for listeners who want to make a real difference.This isn’t just a conversation, it’s a call to action.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.FosterWiki.comnfcq.co.ukChildren's Commissioner report here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/children-living-in-illegal-childrens-homes/https://www.sparksisterhood.org/

Sarah and Louise take an unapologetically unfiltered look at foster care in 2025, the achievements, the bloopers, the ‘persons’ of the year, what needed to stop, what made them laugh, the moments that kept them going, and the low points that still defy explanation. They call out what mattered, dismantle what didn’t, and interrogate the absurdities. Looking to 2026, they ask the questions the sector keeps dodging: what must stop, who needs to step up, what should be gone, and whether this might finally be the year we stop performing care and start prioritising children.Sharp, reflective, and darkly funny. Foster care, without the gloss, the jargon, or the pretending.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

A Foster Care Uncovered Christmas SpecialFestive hats on, rose-tinted myths off.In this Christmas special, we take a tongue-in-cheek but honest look at support during the festive period. Alongside plenty of foster carer humour, Louise reflects on Christmas at 16 after running away, and we explore trauma, contact, cost-of-living pressures, and the realities of Christmas for children in care.Plus, a cheeky look at “top tips for Christmas” written by people who’ve never fostered.Funny, thoughtful, and unapologetically real.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

In this episode, Sarah and Louise sit down with social worker Nana Abbey-Hagen, a practitioner who moves fluently between frontline reality, leadership conversations, and the community spaces where social work and lived experience intersect.Nana talks candidly about working conditions for social workers and whether those pressures ripple into foster care. We explore his work with the Chief Social Worker, Isabelle Trowler, and dig into the long-standing cultural gap between leadership and frontline practice, a gap foster carers know all too well.He talks about his Street Social Work Practice Model: why he created it, the blind spots it exposes, and how it reconnects practice with the real lives of children, families, and carers.We wrap with his vision for the future of social work and what that future means for foster carers on the ground.A grounded, honest conversation that pushes past the corporate narrative and into the truth of what’s really happening.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

In this episode, Sarah and Louise roll right back to the start and take a deep dive into the Form F assessment, what it was meant to be, why it’s drifting so far from purpose, and how it’s shaping (and in too many cases misshaping) foster care, culture, and recruitment today.There’s a lot of serious ground to cover…and, as always with Sarah and Louise, just enough humour to keep the edges from getting too sharp.They tackle the theatre of panel, why it’s time for that curtain to finally fall, what the Form F bizarrely has in common with a Hoover, and, yes, the ongoing mystery of Sarah’s long-lost Year Nine boyfriend Gary, who remains missing in action despite their best investigative efforts.Tune in for an honest, insightful, slightly mischievous exploration of one of fostering’s most entrenched processes, and why it desperately needs a rethink.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

Indefensible unforgivable.Sarah & Louise take apart today’s Government fostering stats - exposing the spin behind the headlines and the failings despite millions of taxpayer investment.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

Welcome to the second episode of Foster Care Uncovered.Today, Louise Allen & Sarah Anderson are joined by Dr Joe Hanley, a social worker, lecturer, researcher and author, as we take an unflinching look at the stranglehold some people and organisations have on our sector.It is quite the eye-opener, especially around the role of the new Children's Minister in these networks.Join us as we ask....is it crippling the reform that the children and the fostering sector so desperately need?You may ask what this has to do with us on the frontline, but trust me, it's everything, and the reason we don't get the reform we need.PS: It's longer than we intended, but it's a huge subject!Take a look at the interactive map as mentioned by Dr Joe Hanley.Full Map: https://www.childrensservices.network/network.htmlAll views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.

Hosted by Louise Allen & Sarah AndersonThis podcast offers an unfiltered and straightforward exploration of the stories and headlines surrounding foster care.We aim to uncover the truths behind the system and advocate for progress in the foster care system.In this introductory episode, we will share information about our mission, the reasons for launching this podcast, and provide a preview of the topics we will cover in future episodes.All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.