Foster Wales and the 'Eliminate Profit' Agenda: What It Means for Prospective Carers

If you have been researching fostering in Wales, you may have come across references to the Welsh Government's plan to "eliminate profit" from children's social care. It sounds like a political slogan, but it has real, practical implications for where you choose to register and what your long-term fostering career might look like.

Understanding the structure of the Welsh children's social care market — and the direction it is heading — is not just background reading. It is one of the most important decisions you will make when choosing which path into fostering to take.

The Two Paths: Foster Wales or an IFA

When you decide to foster in Wales, you have two options for who approves and supports you:

Foster Wales — the unified brand covering all 22 Welsh local authority fostering services. Every council in Wales — Cardiff, Swansea, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Gwynedd, and the other 18 — operates its fostering service under this banner. Foster Wales is not-for-profit; it is funded through council budgets and Welsh Government grants, and every pound paid to carers stays within the care system.

An Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) — a private or voluntary organisation that recruits its own carers and then "provides" those carers to local authorities on a commissioned basis. Major IFAs operating in Wales include Compass Fostering Cymru, Family Fostering Partners, Barnardo's Cymru, and Action for Children. Some IFAs are large national charities; others are private equity-backed businesses.

Both routes lead to the same outcome — you become an approved foster carer, caring for children under Welsh regulations, supervised by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW). But the policy landscape is making the two routes increasingly unequal in ways that matter.

The Eliminate Profit Agenda

The Welsh Government's "eliminate profit" position flows directly from the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and has been reinforced through subsequent policy statements and budget decisions. The core argument is that for-profit providers — particularly those backed by private equity — extract value from the care system in the form of shareholder returns. That money, the argument goes, should instead be spent on children.

A 2022 children's social care market study in Wales, conducted as part of a wider UK Competition and Markets Authority investigation, found that local authorities in Wales were paying significantly elevated rates to IFAs to fill placement gaps that their own carer bases could not meet. The cost differential between in-house (Foster Wales) placements and IFA placements was substantial — sometimes more than double — with IFA fees covering profit margins alongside actual care costs.

The Welsh Government's response has been to accelerate the recruitment of Foster Wales carers through national marketing campaigns (including Foster Care Fortnight), provide local authorities with additional funding to expand their in-house capacity, and signal clearly that the long-term intention is for local authorities to be the primary provider of foster care in Wales.

What This Means for IFAs in Practice

IFAs are not being banned. Several — including the voluntary sector organisations like Barnardo's and Action for Children — provide highly specialist services, particularly therapeutic fostering and parent-and-child placements, that local authorities are not always equipped to deliver in-house.

But the placement priority rules have changed. Under current Welsh Government guidance, local authorities must exhaust their own Foster Wales carer base before approaching an IFA for a placement. This means that an IFA-approved carer is, structurally, the last resort — not the first port of call.

The practical consequence for a carer registered with an IFA is that:

• You may wait longer between placements, as local children are offered to Foster Wales carers first
• Your placement profile is more likely to be children with complex or specialist needs, because those are the cases where IFAs are still commissioned
• The longer-term sustainability of your fostering career with a for-profit IFA depends on whether that organisation remains viable as market conditions tighten

This is not a criticism of IFAs — many provide excellent support and training. It is an honest account of the market dynamics that will shape your experience.

The Foster Wales Value Proposition

The case for registering with your local authority fostering service is strong, and not just because of policy direction.

Local Foster Wales carers benefit from what the Welsh Government calls the "National Commitment" — a guaranteed minimum package of support, training, and financial rewards that applies across all 22 councils. This includes:

• Access to Skills to Foster training and the All Wales Induction Framework
• A dedicated Supervising Social Worker
• Out-of-hours support (the National Minimum Standards require 24-hour availability)
• Priority access to local children — the children you are most likely to be able to genuinely connect with given your knowledge of the community, local schools, and services

There is also a cultural argument. One of the recurring themes in online forums where Welsh carers discuss their experiences is the difference between feeling like a "local authority colleague" within the Foster Wales system versus feeling like a "contractor" within an IFA. Foster Wales carers report better visibility of the placement process, closer working relationships with the child's social worker, and a greater sense of being part of the local community response to a local need.

Some carers in places like Swansea have noted that once local authority fees and enhancements are factored in, LA allowances are now competitive with — or higher than — what some IFAs pay.

The Market Picture for Prospective Carers

If you are at the enquiry stage, the practical takeaway is this: in the current Welsh market, registering with your local Foster Wales service is the cleaner, more stable, and more policy-aligned choice for most prospective carers. You are more likely to receive consistent placements, more likely to be working with children from your own community, and more likely to be in a fostering service whose long-term future is secure.

If you have a specific reason to consider an IFA — specialist interest in therapeutic fostering, experience working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, or a previous relationship with a specific voluntary agency — that case deserves consideration on its merits. But going to an IFA because you think it will be "easier" or "better supported" is a decision worth examining carefully in light of how the market has shifted.

The Regulatory Picture

Both Foster Wales services and IFAs operating in Wales are regulated by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (RISCA). CIW inspects both types of service against the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services in Wales. There is no regulatory argument for preferring one over the other — the standards are the same.

The difference is structural: who holds your approval, who finds your placements, and whose long-term financial sustainability you are betting your career on.

The Wales Fostering Approval Guide covers the full comparison between Foster Wales and IFAs, the "National Commitment" support package, placement priority rules, and how to make an informed choice about which route is right for your circumstances. Get the complete guide here.

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