Could you foster in Cornwall? The myths ruling people out

You thought about it once, maybe twice, then quietly ruled yourself out. You rent. You work full time. You’re single, or you’ve never looked after anyone else’s children. A new national campaign says those are exactly the reasons plenty of people wrongly tell themselves no.

The Department for Education campaign wants more people to see themselves as possible foster carers. It also wants to show that what children often need most are ordinary, everyday acts of care.

The myths putting people off

The campaign is built on new government research. It suggests many people rule themselves out for reasons that are not true. Around one in five wrongly believe foster carers must earn above a certain income (22%), own their own home (20%), or be married or in a long-term relationship (18%).

More than four in ten (43%) think fostering cannot fit around a full-time job. Three in ten (30%) believe you need previous childcare experience or qualifications.

In the South West, more people saw fostering as different from ordinary family life (42%) than saw it as similar (34%). Yet across England, two thirds of people (66%) believe they could be a good foster carer if the practical barriers they imagine were removed. Another 15% say doubts about their own ability could stop them.

Why more carers are needed

Official figures show the number of foster carers fell from 63,890 in 2021 to 56,345 in March 2025, a drop of 12%. Over the past decade, the number of looked after children has risen by nearly 20%.

Across the South West there are 33,770 children in need and 6,920 children looked after. The Government says it is working to create 10,000 new foster care places by 2029, so more children and young people can find safe, stable and supportive homes.

Ian Jarman is Team Manager at Fostering South West, a partnership of 15 local authorities that recruit and support foster carers across the region. He said: “When people think about fostering, they often focus on what they might not have rather than what they can offer. In reality, many of the things children need most are the everyday moments we can sometimes take for granted: a listening ear, a place to feel safe, someone cheering them on and helping them believe in themselves.

“Across the South West, there are children who need those moments every day. We hope this campaign inspires more people to discover that fostering may be more possible than they think.”

Fostering around a full-time job

Plenty of foster carers already fit it around careers, family life and everything else. Becca fosters with her husband Mark for North Somerset Council, and they started while both were working.

“It’s good to highlight the different ways of fostering and that you can foster alongside work. Before we started, we didn’t realise there were fostering friendly policies at work to support us,” she said.

“Short break fostering allowed us to support children and young people while balancing our jobs. It was a brilliant introduction to fostering and showed us that you don’t need to fit a particular mould to make a difference.”

Wes has been a foster carer for South Gloucestershire Council for six years. “Being single, being a man, being a gay man, you think, God, that’s loads of challenges,” he said. “I’ve actually had a very easy journey.”

Fostering South West is also part of three of the 11 projects backed by the Department for Education’s Fostering Innovation Fund. These cover a more diverse pool of carers, better support to help carers stay, and new routes into fostering.

How to find out more

Anyone who has assumed fostering is not for them is being encouraged to find out more before deciding. The quickest starting point is the national campaign website. Its postcode checker points you to your own local fostering service.

Fostering South West is running two free online information events on Wednesday 28 October. One runs from 12.30pm to 1.30pm and the other from 7pm to 8.30pm, during Cornwall’s half term. Places can be booked through the Fostering South West events page. The team can also be reached at [email protected] or on 0300 456 0120.

If you’d rather ask a question without picking up the phone, the Department for Education is running an Ask Me Anything discussion on Reddit. Answering are Kati Jago, a foster carer for Devon County Council, and Maxine Freeman, Senior Recruitment Officer at Fostering South West. Questions can be submitted until Friday 30 October.