Fosterline England will be closed from 5pm on Thursday 28 March and reopening at 9am on Tuesday 2 April 2024. You can still leave us a message during this time, and we’ll respond to your message after the Easter Break. If you are worried about a child, please contact your Local Authority.
Fosterline England will be closed from 5pm on Thursday 28 March and reopening at 9am on Tuesday 2 April 2024. You can still leave us a message during this time, and we’ll respond to your message after the Easter Break. If you are worried about a child, please contact your Local Authority.
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Fostering in England 2016-17: Ofsted Statistics – England

Ofsted has released its latest annual dataset on fostering provision in both local authority and independent fostering services in England for the year ending 31 March 2017. Key figures include:

  • There were 83,930 approved fostering places as at 31 March 2017, an increase of 1% on the previous year
  • There were 43,710 approved fostering households as at 31 March 2017, a 1% decrease on the previous year
  • 114,425 initial enquiries were received, compared to 101,795 in 2015-16, an increase of 12% (down 1% in the LA sector and up 20% in the IFA sector)
  • 11% of initial enquiries nationally converted to applications (18% in the LA sector and 8% in the IFA sector)
  • 52,005 children and young people were in fostering placements at 31 March 2017, 200 more than the previous year
  • 2,375 children experienced unplanned endings during 2016-17, and of these 22% (525) experienced at least one move within 24 hours of the decision to end the placement early.

The commentary document and dataset can be downloaded from the Gov.uk website.

The new statistics are also discussed in an Ofsted blog post: ‘Fostering in England – what’s the latest picture?’.