Louise* starts her workday getting the children breakfast and ready for school. After drop-off, she attends meetings, completes training and works through a growing pile of paperwork. She’s also on standby as there’s almost always a call to collect a child if there’s been an issue at school. Then there’s everything else that comes with parenting: GP and dentist appointments, buying clothes, arranging therapeutic support, and managing what’s known as “contact” with the children’s birth parents.
The problem for Louise, and thousands of foster carers across the country, is that they are not considered to be workers. Although their jobs are vital, this lack of recognition means they have no annual leave, no sick pay and no guarantee they won’t face consequences just for raising concerns.
“It is a 24-hours-a-day job,” said Louise, who has been a foster carer for 14 years. “I’ve had to take children to hospital. I’ve had a particular child who has been bed-wetting, so then I’m up changing beds. Or I’ve got a child that really cannot sleep.”
Esme*, who has been fostering for more than a decade, said she and her husband had calculated their earnings at just 80p an hour.
“We must be the most exploited workers in the country,” she said. “We care 24/7 for some of society’s most vulnerable children, follow care plans, attend meetings, keep records, do training, be on hand for surprise inspections, yet we have no rights or protections whatsoever. Most foster carers are relying upon universal credit to get by.”
Carers told the Guardian that while the role had professionalised over the past 30 years, pay and conditions had not kept pace.
Chloe*, another foster carer, described the constant fear of children being removed if they raised concerns. When a disciplinary case is opened, “you just have to back down and pray that it comes out in your favour”.
All three women spoke only on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal from the agencies and local authorities they work with.
In January, three foster carers won a landmark legal case, with a tribunal judge ruling they had the right to bring discrimination and whistleblowing claims to an employment tribunal. Now, they are taking their fight for full employment rights to the supreme court.
“At the moment, they treat these people as glorified babysitters that they can just kick out when they feel like it,” said Robin Findlay, the founder and general secretary of the National Union of Professional Foster Carers (NUPFC). “That’s why there are more foster carers leaving than there are joining.
“Some local authorities say ‘well, they’re not employees, so we don’t have to treat them like one. They’re self-employed. We can call them in when we need them and get rid of them when we don’t.’”
The NUPFC was launched in 2017 and operates around the clock. “We have a morning briefing at seven in the morning and a night-time briefing at 10 o’clock at night – seven days a week,” Findlay said.
He described how carers who repeatedly asked for more support or funding often faced retaliation. “Those on the panel will have been briefed from the start: ‘We’ve got to get rid of this one, she’s a troublemaker.’ She’s asking too much, more money for shoes, for this and that, and it’s affecting their profit margin.”
Anger is growing over the rising role of private equity in the sector. Nearly a quarter of all foster placements in England are now provided by private companies making millions in profit. Foster carers say they are being squeezed while corporate agencies cash in.
Esme criticised independent fostering agencies openly advertising that struggling carers could apply for universal credit, while making a fortune off the back of their labour. “No one working 24/7 should be left struggling to cover their basic living costs,” she said. “British taxpayers are paying twice: once for the overpriced foster placements bought from private agencies, and then again for benefits to cover foster carers’ basic living expenses.
“The benefit system is propping up this entire broken model. That should be enough to cause public outrage.”
The number of foster carers in England has now sunk to a 10-year low. Clare Ward, who recently stopped fostering after 13 years and is a representative for the Foster Care Workers Union the IWGB, said: “Foster carers are leaving in droves and it’s not just because of the finances. It’s because of that lack of respect, and we have no rights to protect us.
“We bring so much skill, experience and education to the role. People think we are providing essentially bed and breakfast and a loving home to children, but in reality we’re running minor mental health units 24 hours a day in our homes with the country’s most vulnerable children who have all been traumatised. And we’re asked to support and advocate for these children without any power. We often end up vulnerable and traumatised ourselves. We have no support.”
Ward is backing a campaign for a bill of rights for foster carers, including an independent central registration body to uphold professional standards and prevent local authorities or agencies from “weaponising” children against carers.
“If you’ve got children that you’re looking after but you’ve got a major issue with your employer, or say you’re burnt out, you’re exhausted, whatever it may be, they’ll say ‘we’ll have to take the children off you then’,” she said. “And these could be children that you’ve loved for years and years. So you struggle on. That’s really hard. There needs to be independent support.”
Ward described the current system of allowances as a postcode lottery. “You’re constantly on the cliff-edge of financial ruin,” she said. “In some areas, foster carers are paid by the household rather than by the child. So you might be looking after three children, and you’re being given the same allowance as somebody looking after one.”
*Names have been changed
