Market Position Statement September 2026: Agency Foster Care

This Market Position Statement sets out Lancashire County Council’s current and future priorities for fostering. It aims to provide fostering agencies and partners with a clear overview of local demand, sufficiency and the changing needs of our children in care. It is intended to support informed planning, investment and the development of high-quality foster homes that enable more Lancashire children to live locally.

Collaboration remains a key priority to support the ongoing challenges, including increased demand for homes for older children, sibling groups and children with complex social and emotional needs. Lancashire wants to build upon the strong provider relationships to increase local capacity, improve placement choice and stability, and to secure better outcomes for our children and young people.

Decreasing numbers of children being cared for in an agency foster home and increasing numbers of children living in a children's home.

• Fewer Lancashire children in care: 188 fewer children in care at end of March 2026 compared to April 2022, 10% less.

• Significant reduction to children in an agency foster home: 178 fewer children in an agency foster home at end of March 2026 compared to April 2022, 40% less.

• Sustained increase in the number of children living in children's homes: 222 children in a children's home in April 2022 compared to 276 in March 2026, 54 or 24% more.

• Non-connected carers: 30% of non-connected carers were from an agency foster home in March 2026, compared to 45% in April 2022. As of March 2025, 48% of filled mainstream fostering places in the UK were provided by IFAs.

• Overall continued decrease in fostering capacity within the northwest. Between April 2024 and March 2025, there was a 2% decrease in the number of approved agency carers as well as a 2% decrease in local authority approved fostering households in the region.

There is enough foster home capacity in Lancashire to meet local demand, but we can still struggle to find suitable homes.

• Local arrangement remains the primary route for making agency foster home placements. In the financial year to March 2026, 83% of agency foster home places were made through the Lancashire agreement. 95% of all agency places were made through either the local or regional contracts.

• Low sufficiency usage. 22% of reported in area agency foster home places are caring for a Lancashire child. This equates to over 600 approved places either as homes for children from outside of the Authority, on hold or unfilled, although the actual figure could be much more.

• Reduction in the need for emergency foster home places. 32% of agency foster home requests related to emergency needs in April 2022, compared to 17% in March 2026.

• Continued decrease in the number of children supported via the Step Down into Fostering model. 23 Step Down into Fostering placements were made April 2022 to March 2026, on average 6 per year. However, in the two years to March 2026, only 1 related to an agency step down into foster home.

• High number of enhanced support arrangements. Since April 2022, 70 enhanced support arrangements have been introduced, including 16 between April 2025 and March 2026.

• Increase to LA provided mainstream foster homes. The number of LA mainstream foster homes increased by nearly 10% between April 2025 and March 2026.

Very high numbers of children in care living in Lancashire from other local authority areas significantly impacts on local services.

• There are 1800 looked after children from other Local Authorities living in Lancashire.

Schools

• The high number of out of area children in care that are moving into Lancashire continues to put a strain on admissions in both secondary and primary schools. This is impacting on our ability to find school places for Lancashire's children in care, as schools are routinely reporting that they cannot meet any further demand.

• An increasing number of children in care have special educational needs. In Lancashire, over 30% of children in care have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Many children in care also experience disrupted education. High numbers of children being placed in Lancashire by other local authorities puts additional demand on local education provision. This is particularly challenging for specialist provision and affects the availability of local school places and the ability in meeting statutory education duties.

Health

• Health has a responsibility to complete statutory health assessments and act as lead health professionals. This can also involve public health services such as school nursing.

• National evidence indicates that children placed out of area have a higher complexity of health needs that may require various health services. This puts a high demand on already stretched services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

• Increasingly out of area children move to Lancashire with very little prior planning, which can mean that children are moving into Lancashire without a robust plan for how their health needs will be met.

Police

• Around 1 in 10 children in care will be reported missing. Children in care will be reported missing on an average of 6.8 occasions as opposed to 2 occasions for children not looked after by the local authority. Although an improving trend, in 2025, 16% of children missing in care incidents related to those in a foster home.

• In addition to police responding to children being missing, police also respond to crime related incidents linked to children in care

It can be challenging to find local foster homes for some of our children.

• Nearly half of Lancashire's requests for agency foster homes are for 11-year- olds and over. 22% of all requests relate to 11 to 13-year-olds.

• High number of Lancashire's searches for an agency foster home are 'hard-to-find'. 40% of all searches in 2025/26 were 'hard-to-find', most relating to over 11-year-olds. This included where no suitable foster homes can be found due to reported capacity.

• Preston, Lancaster and Burnley are areas with the highest 'hard-to-find' home requests. These three districts represented 56% of all agency foster home requests in 2025/26.

• Higher number of children with a plan for fostering are living in children's homes due to challenges in finding suitable local foster homes. These children are more likely to be prioritised by children home providers due to their lesser complex needs/ behaviours, further exacerbating the challenge of finding homes for our children with a higher complexity of need/ behaviours.

We are in more need for foster carers who can care for older children, sibling groups and children with complex social and emotional behaviours.

• Low number of younger children in an agency foster home. Only 11% of children in an agency foster home were 8 years-old and under in March 2026, compared with 15% in April 2022.

• Sibling requests related to 17% of agency requests between April 2025 and March 2026.

• Searching for up to 15 new enhanced foster homes at any one time. On average there are up to 2 new enhanced (including Step Down) foster home requests made each month for children with complex social and emotional needs.

• More agency foster carers in Lancashire caring for Lancashire children.

• Increase the proportion of our children living in foster homes to 68% (66.8% March 2026).

• Increase the number of foster carers that can support children with complex social and emotional needs, including those children moving on from a children's home with needs/behaviours such as:

  • Emotional behaviour and attachment needs

  • Children with SEND

  • Challenging or risk-taking behaviour, including aggression, risk of child exploitation or missing from home  

  • Aggression / violence

  • Sexualised behaviours

  • Missing education.

• Increase the number of children cared for by in-house non-connected carers.

Continue to build upon existing strong relationships with providers who are willing to work collaboratively and creatively with Lancashire County Council to deliver local homes for Lancashire's children in care.

Please contact artenquiries@lancashire.gov.uk for any further discussions.