Foster Care Fortnight Wales: What It Is and How to Take the Next Step

Every May, Foster Care Fortnight arrives with recruitment campaigns, social media posts, and local events designed to encourage people who have been "thinking about fostering" to finally pick up the phone. The Fostering Network organizes it, all four UK nations participate, and in Wales it runs alongside Foster Wales activity across all 22 local authorities.

If you are reading this during or after a Foster Care Fortnight campaign, that impulse to explore further is worth acting on. Here is what the numbers tell you — and what taking the next step actually looks like.

Why Foster Care Fortnight Matters in Wales

The numbers behind Foster Care Fortnight are not just recruitment marketing. Data released by The Fostering Network ahead of the 2026 campaign showed that children in Wales are facing growing placement instability, with increasing numbers of foster carers leaving the system. The gap between the number of carers needed and the number available is real and continuing to widen.

The Welsh Government's "sufficiency duty" — embedded in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 — requires local authorities to ensure enough foster care capacity exists within their areas to keep children close to their communities, schools, and families. In practice, many authorities are struggling to meet this duty, particularly for sibling groups, teenagers, and children with complex needs.

Foster Care Fortnight is one of the main mechanisms through which the system attempts to address this gap. The events, social media campaigns, and media coverage it generates account for a measurable spike in initial enquiries to Welsh fostering services every May.

What Typically Happens During Foster Care Fortnight in Wales

Local authority fostering teams and IFAs operating in Wales run information events, open days, and virtual Q&As during the fortnight. Foster Wales — the collective brand for the 22 local authorities — typically runs a coordinated national campaign alongside authority-specific local activity.

Activities commonly available during Foster Care Fortnight include:

• Online webinars and Q&A sessions with social workers and experienced foster carers
• In-person information evenings at local authority offices or community venues
• Social media campaigns featuring real stories from Welsh foster carers
• Targeted recruitment focused on specific shortage areas — sibling groups, teenagers, specialist needs

If you attend an information event, you will typically hear from existing carers about their experiences, get an overview of the approval process, and have an opportunity to ask the questions you have been carrying for months. The sessions are informal and low-pressure. Attending does not commit you to anything.

The Gap Between Interest and Application

Most people who engage with Foster Care Fortnight do not go on to apply — not because they are unsuitable, but because the information events create interest without providing the depth needed to overcome the practical anxieties that keep people at the enquiry stage.

Common barriers that stall people after initial interest:

• Uncertainty about whether their housing, health history, or household situation will disqualify them
• Anxiety about the DBS check and what historical information might appear
• Concern about the "intrusiveness" of the Form F assessment
• Not fully understanding the financial support available
• Uncertainty about which type of fostering would fit their life

These are all answerable questions — but the answers require more than a leaflet or a social media post. They require a detailed, honest look at how the Welsh approval process actually works.

What the Welsh System Specifically Needs

Foster Care Fortnight messaging tends toward the emotional. "Change a child's life." "Be the difference." These things are true, but they do not prepare you for the regulatory framework you are about to enter.

Welsh fostering is governed by its own legislation — the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the RISCA 2016, the Fostering Panels (Wales) Regulations 2018, and the Regulated Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2019. It is inspected by Care Inspectorate Wales, not Ofsted. It operates through a distinct rights-based framework that includes the UNCRC duty and the abolition of reasonable punishment.

If you want to make the most of the momentum that Foster Care Fortnight creates, the practical next step is not just to call a fostering agency — it is to understand what you are getting into well enough to ask the right questions when you do.

The Wales Fostering Approval Guide is designed exactly for this moment: the space between "I'm genuinely interested" and "I'm ready to apply." It covers the full approval process, the financial reality, the training requirements, and the distinctly Welsh legal framework — so that by the time you speak to a social worker, you already know what they are going to ask.

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