This week, Sarah and Louise are joined by Rebekah Pierre, Deputy Director of Article 39, care-experienced author, social worker, and one of the most important voices shaping the national conversation on children’s social care, who brings both authority and professional and lived experience to the table.

Her work spans frontline practice, policy influence, and powerful storytelling, most recently through her book Free Loaves on Fridays, a landmark anthology capturing the realities of the care system through the voices of those who actually live it.

As always, we start with a news roundup, and Sarah doesn’t hold back on what’s been building frustration this week.

From there, the conversation moves into three areas that aren’t getting the scrutiny they deserve. First, foster carer recruitment, not just what’s being said, but how it’s being marketed, and why something about it feels increasingly off.

Then, a deeper look at who was left out of the care review, and what that exclusion means for reform in practice, not just on paper. And finally, a frank discussion about unregulated and unregistered children’s homes, and why their impact is becoming impossible to ignore.

This is a conversation that goes beyond the usual narratives. It’s about credibility, whose voices shape the system, and what happens when lived experience is either centred or quietly sidelined.

Free Loaves on Friday by Rebekah Pierre (Author)

Free Loaves on Fridays is an anthology of stories, poems, reflections and letters by more than 100 care-experienced people, which aims to challenge worn-out stereotypes. This collection gives voice to diverse experiences, including foster care, adoption, kinship care and semi-independent living, among others.

Get your copy here!

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.

In this episode, Sarah and Louise return after half term with a frank conversation about what’s really happening in fostering today.

They start with powerful listener feedback that reflects a growing sense of recognition. For many carers, these conversations are finally putting words to experiences that have long been lived in silence.

We then turn to the latest Sky documentary on allegations in fostering, and what it reveals about fear, culture, and accountability within the system, alongside the gap between public messaging and lived reality.

From there, we explore a deeper question: why foster carers remain one of the least supported workforces in the system. Across mental health, illness, bereavement, menopause, men’s health, neurodiversity, and everyday family pressures, we look at what happens when expectation consistently outweighs support.

At its core, this episode asks a simple but uncomfortable question: if foster carers are so essential, then why does no one look after them?.

And finally… find out which Local Authority is on the naughty step this week.

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 continue the conversation on foster carers' mental health, and go even deeper into what’s really happening behind the scenes. In Part 2, they explore the systemic pressures driving stress, anxiety, and silence across the sector, from fear of allegations to the reality of job insecurity and constant scrutiny.

With powerful, honest contributions from foster carers, this episode shines a light on the hidden toll of fostering and why the system itself can no longer be ignored.

• 5 Top Tips for self-care and mental health, and they're not what you think
• NFCQ Foster Carers Mental Health and Wellbeing
• FosterWiki: Foster Carer's Mental Health

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.

In this episode, Sarah and Louise start up a crucial conversation - the mental health of foster carers.

Behind the role is constant emotional labour, exposure to trauma, and the pressure to keep going, even when it’s hard. They explore how this affects carers over time, the signs to look out for, and why so many people feel they have to carry it quietly.

Because if we want stable homes and a secure base for children and young people, we have to start by recognising and supporting the people providing them.

• 5 Top Tips for self-care and mental health, and they're not what you think
• NFCQ Foster Carers Mental Health and Wellbeing
• FosterWiki: Foster Carer's Mental Health

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.

In this episode of Foster Care Uncovered, Sarah and Louise pull back the curtain on what foster carers really experience, and why the system’s promises of support often fall short.

From the quietly creeping national foster carer register to the realities of supervision, breaks, mental health, and training, they reveal the gap between policy and practice.

Sarah and Louise explore what real, effective support should look like, the dangers of performative measures, and how independent, peer-led organisations are filling the void.

A must listen for anyone who cares about fostering, carers, and the children they serve.

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 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-2025

https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker

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 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.com

Centre 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.