Fostering in Birmingham

Fostering Birmingham

there is a special place in heart for fostering Birmingham because it’s where we are based. With that in mind if you are in the Birmingham area, a really big benefit for you as an F5 Foster Carer is having our headquarters almost on your doorstop – Our office has an open door policy so you are free to pop in whenever you like for a chat or to ask any questions, its also where we hold the majority of our training and support group meetings.

We are happy to share that we are an approved Foster Carer provider for Birmingham Childrens Trust (as well as for all local surrounding Local Authorities) which means that when children and young people from the Birmingham area in need of Foster homes, Birmingham Childrens Trust will forward us a referral to see what suitable homes we have for that child. As such we work with them closely to ensure we recruit and train the most suitable and well matched Foster Carers possible.

To give you an idea of the scope of fostering, specific to Birmingham, please see below localised information that you may find helpful.

How many children are in care in Birmingham

On  March 2022, Birmingham Childrens Trust reported that there were over 1200 Birmingham based children and young people in foster care. In addition to this, there were also 984 children from other Local Authorities placed within the Birmingham boundary, so we are looking at over 2000 children who needed Foster Homes in Birmingham. That’s a scary figure and it’s anticipated to rise over the next 2 – 3 years by 6%.

Birmingham Childrens Trust will always try to keep Birmingham Children in Birmingham (when it is safe an appropriate to do so), as this helps the child to continue with important aspects such as attending school and supervised family time etc, so when we are looking at matching children to potential foster homes, our Birmingham based Carers will always be a first point of call. Additionally, other neighbouring local authorities such as Solihull or Sandwell for example, as mentioned above, will sometimes reach out to Birmingham based foster carers if they have been unable to find a suitably matched Foster Carer within their own Local Authority.

The population of children in care has grown by 6% since 2015 which is in line with the national average. The increase can, in part, be attributed to socio-economic issues, an increase in Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASCs) and in earlier identification of harm – you will find more about this below.

Why are the children coming into care

Reasons for children entering care is monitored and for the children who entered care throughout 2020, the following information was is provided:

Abuse and neglect (64%) followed by acute family stress (9%), family dysfunction (9%) and absent parenting (9%).

About the children that come into care

Children come into care every day of all ages, however we can see that there are certain age groups that have higher number, for example; children and young people aged 10-15 years were the largest group of new entrants into care during 2020, (forming 28% of all new admissions) and currently the majority of new referrals from Birmingham Childrens Trust are for children and young people aged 10-17. There are of course referrals for other younger or older children, particularly where there is a sibling set that are looking to be placed together.

When you hear us talking about matching, one of the areas that we will always try to match where possible is the ethnic profile of children and their Foster Carers. The demographics re ethnicity of children and young people in care has remained relatively stable over the last 5 years in Birmingham, To give you an idea how this is reflected please see the below information as reported by Birmingham Children’s Trust.  This is important information to know as in order to be able to match effectively, there needs to be a foster carer base that reflects the demographics of our city’s children and young people.

White children and young people make up 51% of the care population, followed by Mixed Heritage (21%), Black (12%) and Asian (12%) children.