While the Westminster set enjoy salmon blinis, caviar and £100 bottles of Pol Roger, the people holding children’s social care together are exhausted, undervalued and walking away.

This week on Foster Care Uncovered, Sarah and Louise look at the politics behind children’s social care reform, the arrival of new leadership, and whether the promise of listening to people beyond Westminster will finally reach the frontline.

We ask whether glossy announcements, photo opportunities and symbolic reforms are replacing the difficult work of actually fixing a system in crisis.

Then we tackle the uncomfortable conversation nobody likes to have: are foster carers being exploited by the very system that depends on them?

From hidden costs and emotional labour, to fear, power imbalance and feeling disposable when things go wrong, we explore what happens when a workforce built on relationships is left without enough power, protection or voice.

Plus… we investigate the important questions. Who was at the party? Who got the blinis? And has anyone remembered to ask the foster carers?

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!

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.

Useful Links

JOIN FOSTERWIKI TODAY https://fosterwiki.com/register/

The Exploitation of Foster Carers: How Has It Become Normalised?

This week, Sarah and Louise begin by unpacking the latest fostering news, including the Government's latest announcement on Regional Care Co-operatives, what it really means for foster carers, and the proposed rewrite of the National Minimum Standards. Is this genuine reform, or simply another restructure that leaves the real problems untouched?

Then they tackle one of the most uncomfortable questions the sector has ever faced: are foster carers being exploited? They explore whether decades of reforms have unintentionally created the conditions for exploitation to become normalised. As fostering has become increasingly professionalised, with more regulation, governance, commissioning and management, the role of the foster carer has remained remarkably unchanged, often still treated as though it belongs to another era.

From hidden financial costs and emotional pressure to power imbalances and a system increasingly reliant on carers' goodwill, this powerful first part of a two-part series asks whether compassion has become something the system quietly depends upon and takes for granted.

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!

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.

Useful Links

JOIN FOSTERWIKI TODAY https://fosterwiki.com/register/

FosterWiki Parental Responsibility (PR): https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/parental-responsibility-pr/

FosterWiki Delegated Authority: https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/delegated-authority/

FosterWiki Delegated Authority – Decision Support Tool: https://fosterwiki.com/assets/uploads/2021/07/Delegated-Authority-Tool-Example-Published-07-2021.pdf

This week, Sarah and Louise examine the unprecedented warning from Scotland's senior social work leaders, who’ve exposed that children are being taken home by social workers because there are no available placements. They explore how years of ignored warnings have led to this point, and why the real crisis may be retention rather than recruitment.

They also unpack the growing controversy around private equity in children's care, ask why foster carers continue to shoulder the financial risks of allegations and gaps between placements, discuss what the revised allegations toolkit really represents, and unveil The F Files, a new investigative series exploring the people, organisations and influences shaping foster care behind the scenes.

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!

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.

Sarah and Louise take their irreverent look and roll back the curtains on another week in fostering. They start with leadership, language, and the familiar gap between what is announced and what is actually felt in foster families. From political reshuffles to sector promises, they ask what all the noise really means for children and carers on a Tuesday afternoon when support is needed, and someone has to answer the phone.

We also turn to recent headlines that have shaken public trust and sparked uncomfortable questions about accountability, repetition, and why “lessons will be learned” still gets wheeled out as though it carries weight.

Find out who’s won this week’s coveted Naughty Step Award… and who (and what) has qualified for Word Salad Corner.

Then we head to the kitchen table itself, where fostering actually lives, not in frameworks or buzzwords, but in exhaustion, humour, repair, and relentless unpredictability. This week, we dig into what happens when theory meets real life: why behaviour is never just behaviour, why relationships carry the weight of everything, and why “good enough” is sometimes the most radical idea in the room.

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!

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 are joined by John Pearce OBE for a wide-ranging and deeply reflective conversation about the state of children’s social care and where it may be heading next.

John brings decades of experience at the forefront of children’s services leadership, including his time as Director of Children’s Services in Durham, and is widely known for his clear-sighted, often challenging analysis of system design, practice realities and reform.

Together, they explore a central tension running through children’s services today: a system built for a different era, now stretched by the realities of modern childhood. The conversation moves beyond surface-level reform to ask whether we are repeatedly redesigning the same structures rather than confronting the deeper questions about demand, sufficiency and purpose.

They discuss whether fostering, in its current form, has a natural ceiling; what recent reforms like Regional Care Co-operatives reveal about how policy translates into practice; and why systems so often behave differently in reality than they do on paper.

The episode also looks forward, exploring whether new models of family-based care may be needed to meet the needs of today’s children and young people, and what a more honest conversation about markets, providers and leadership might look like.

A thoughtful, challenging and at times uncomfortable conversation about what it will really take to build a system that works for children today.

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!

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 open with a candid, slightly irreverent look at what’s been making waves in the sector, the stories behind the headlines, the language being used, and the questions few people are saying out loud.

At the heart of the conversation is a deeper exploration of how control shows up in subtle, often unspoken ways, and why some of the systems designed to support children and carers can end up creating the very tensions they are trying to avoid. They dig into the psychology sitting underneath it all, what drives it, what sustains it, and what happens when it starts to backfire.

After the break, the discussion tightens. This is where things get more pointed: real examples, real dynamics, and the uncomfortable patterns that many will recognise but few will name. Expect challenge, reflection, and a few moments that will stay with you long after the episode ends, including who and what sits at the centre of this week’s spotlight.

Links

Interview:

IWGB Foster Care Workers Branch Chair Sarah Anderson on Victoria Derbyshire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGZpLaTmOPo&list=PLWEgjIZKyJRoHb1uEe8IgW-GoRhEPgLzu&index=12

Government statements:

Gov UK Fostering for the future: improving the foster care system: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/fostering-for-the-future-improving-the-foster-care-system

Gov UK Proposed changes to assessment and handling allegations of abuse: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fostering-reform-proposed-changes-to-assessment-and-handling-allegations-of-abuse

Foster Carers Mental Health: https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/foster-carers-mental-health/

NFCQ Foster Carers Mental Health and Wellbeing: https://education.nfcq.co.uk/nfcq-courses/foster-carers-mental-health-and-wellbeing/

Recourses:

FosterWiki: https://fosterwiki.com/wiki/

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!

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 take on one of foster care's biggest elephants in the room: "Them and Us".

For years, carers have spoken about a growing divide between those providing care and those controlling the system. Yet whenever the subject is raised, many insist the divide doesn't exist.

So who's right?

Drawing on frontline experience, sector news, survey data and some uncomfortable questions, Sarah and Louise explore how power, accountability, allegations, leadership culture and government policy have combined to create a system where many carers feel increasingly excluded from decisions that affect both them and the children they care for.

Because perhaps the real question isn't whether a "Them and Us" culture exists.

It's why so many people are still pretending it doesn't.

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!

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 on Foster Care Uncovered, Sarah and Louise tackle the growing culture crisis inside fostering.

From Josh MacAlister’s latest social media backlash and the controversy around foster carer pay messaging, to the Government’s new Practice Guide for supporting foster carers, they ask a bigger question: why does fostering increasingly feel like a system more focused on managing narratives than listening to frontline reality?

They explore the culture of fear many carers describe, and why so many feel unable to speak openly without judgment, repercussions or being shut down altogether.

The episode also takes a sharp look at performative empathy, power dynamics, workplace culture, peer support, Ofsted ratings, and the growing frustration amongst carers who feel excluded from reform conversations that directly affect their lives.

Plus: Foster Care Fortnight updates, listener messages, Wandsworth’s “Outstanding” rating, and plenty of the usual murky discussion along the way.

A raw, honest, and thought-provoking episode about the culture carers are actually working within, not the one presented in glossy campaigns.

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!

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.