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Foster care in the UK, especially England, has developed a broad base of service delivery. No longer an almost exclusively public sector activity, foster placements and related therapeutic and educational services are increasingly located in the non-governmental sector and delivered by independent fostering providers (IFPs). As this sector has grown, so too have contracting arrangements between IFPs and local authority purchasers, most of whom have faced considerable difficulties in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of foster carers for their looked after children. With the strengthening policy shift towards commissioning, different contracting models are emerging. These are described with reference both to recent studies and a broader critique of relevant legal, policy, ideological and managerial developments in order to speculate about the future of a mixed economy of foster care.

The development of foster care as the placement of choice for children in care in Britain has been encouraged both in policy and practice. This has been accompanied by the severe reduction in residential care facilities for children and young people and the crisis in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of local authority approved and registered foster carers. The result has been a steady growth in the number of independent fostering providers (IFPs) and the increasing proportion of looked after children placed with their agencies' foster carers. In the past 20 years or so, the independent sector has become a major provider of placements and related children's services and this has presented local authorities with considerable cost. During this time, collaboration between local authority commissioners and independent fostering providers has gone through many different phases. By examining a series of linked studies between 1997 and 2010, Clive Sellick explores how the experiences and views of social workers, managers and foster carers have influenced the identities of the IFPs, the working relationships and organisational arrangements which have developed between staff and carers of both sectors and the impact of related policy throughout the New Labour era (1997–2010) in the UK.

AbstractFoster placements for children in care in the UK are being increasingly provided by non‐governmental organizations. However, although local authorities are purchasing almost one third of their required placements from these external agencies, the UK has not yet followed the examples of other English speaking countries. In parts of the USA and Australia all fostering and other child welfare services have been wholly outsourced or transferred from the public to private and non‐profit organizations. A number of these initiatives have been independently evaluated and some of their findings resonate with what seems to be happening in the UK. This article explores these but also other factors which appear to distinguish the policy and practice of foster care in the UK from those of the USA and Australia. Using theory related to the privatization of welfare and relevant domestic and international research, the article examines the development of external commissioning of foster care in Britain. In the light of changing law, ideology and policy, the article concludes by speculating on how the future of fostering and wider child welfare provision in the UK may look, at a time of political change and economic austerity.

Support services for the birth relatives of adopted children have received far less research scrutiny than those for adopters and the children themselves. Clive Sellick reports the first stage 'mapping' survey of a government-commissioned study into birth relative support services and services supporting contact following changes in policy and legislation. The type, range and delivery of such services, commissioned or provided by local authority and voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies in England and Wales, are examined. The survey found that good opportunities exist for linking birth relative and contact support services. However, real challenges remain in promoting support services and reaching birth relatives and in funding and commissioning such services, particularly from the non-governmental sector.

Foster care has become the principal placement of choice for children and young people in public care in the United Kingdom (UK). This has been accompanied by a significant growth in its research scrutiny connected to a busy policy agenda, especially since 1997. With its increased usage, fostering has encountered both difficulties and developments. Children often have emotional and behavioural problems which strain their foster families to their limits and risk placement breakdown. Public sector foster carers continue to be in short supply and keeping them engaged in fostering remains a challenge. Major developments have occurred in response to these difficulties. The use of relatives as kinship carers has increased substantially and the non‐governmental or independent fostering sector has grown rapidly. Until comparatively recently, the knowledge base of foster care in Britain was limited, but the past decade has seen that change and now a substantial body of research knowledge is available in the UK. Copyright © 2006 National Children's Bureau.

Attitudes within the wider child placement public sector towards the place of independent fostering agencies remain largely negative, especially when expressed by local authority senior managers. Clive Sellick considers these alongside some other views that have emerged from the findings of relevant research. He goes on to examine the mission statements of 55 independent fostering agencies included in a recent national survey of the services, costs, staff, foster carers and children and young people in placement in these agencies. The author has undertaken a qualitative analysis of these statements in order to identify the aims and principles that underpin agency practice. Three main themes emerge relating to promoting children's welfare, providing a range of services for children and carers and creating a competent and available foster carer workforce. These are considered alongside the profiles of ten agencies to illustrate the breadth of provision available to local authorities. The author concludes by suggesting that information about the purpose and provision of independent fostering is likely to lead to a more balanced view and use of this sector.

Independent fostering agencies have grown significantly in recent years in an era which encouraged the expansion of non-governmental welfare services. Clive Sellick reviews the practice and research literature in respect of this placement sector and its associated services to children and foster carers. He also summarises some major issues which have emerged from the recent evaluation of one independent fostering agency. The views of agency foster carers and local authority social workers are considered, alongside case material relating to children placed. Conclusions are drawn about the future relationship between public and independent fostering agencies.

British social workers at the sharp end of foster care and social work practice have experienced a flood of official reports in recent years (Association of Directors of Social Services, 1997; Utting, 1997; Warren, 1997), mostly, though not exclusively, highlighting the problems of too few placements for an increasingly challenging number of children and young people. In addition, British and North American foster care research over the past twenty years has shown how children in public, including foster, care have been: