When the UK Government launched its fostering consultation, Home for Good did something characteristically grounded: they went and asked foster carers what they actually needed. The response they received from over 100 carers shaped a submission that challenges the government's framing in an important way.

The temptation in any fostering strategy is to focus on recruitment — on bringing new carers into the system. But Home for Good's consultation response argues that retention is equally urgent. Carers who feel unsupported, unrecognised, and undervalued leave the system, taking with them years of experience and the stability that children in their care depend on.

The specific asks are practical and achievable: better peer support networks, access to therapeutic services, and a genuine recognition of foster carers as professional partners rather than volunteers who happen to have a spare room. These are not expensive asks. They are asks that reflect what carers themselves say they need to keep going.

Home for Good has always understood that the church has a unique role in the fostering and adoption landscape — not just as a source of potential carers, but as a community that can wrap around those carers with the long-term, relational support that statutory services cannot always provide. This consultation response is a reminder that advocacy and community go hand in hand.