Foster Care Fortnight (12 – 25 May 2025) is the UK’s largest awareness raising campaign for fostering. The fortnight is hosted by The Fostering Network. This year’s theme is the power of relationships, “because at the heart of every fostering journey are the connections that make all the difference”.
The new Form F (Prospective Foster Carer Report) England (2025)
During Foster Care Fortnight, CoramBAAF will be launching the revised Form F. It is important to support relationships between a foster carer and child or young person from the very beginning. This form helps to focus on children’s needs and how carer s can meet them.
Form F is a detailed assessment report used in England to help decide whether individuals or couples are suitable to become foster carers. It’s designed to record the work done with prospective carers during their preparation and training, and to highlight key information about them and their family for the fostering panel.
Coming soon!
The power of relationships - helping children in care learn to trust and thrive
In this heartfelt conversation for Foster Care Fortnight, foster carer Paul Calder shares powerful stories that highlight the importance of consistent, compassionate relationships in helping children in care learn to trust and thrive.
Coming soon!
Adoption & Fostering journal: The Power of Relationships
In 2022, CoramBAAF published a special issue of the Adoption & Fostering journal dedicated to 'The Power of Relationships'. We are now resharing this special edition with our members to highlight the enduring relevance of its themes. Readers were invited to reflect on the many dimensions of relationships and to appreciate the wide range of topics explored. For over 40 years, the Adoption & Fostering journal has been a leading platform for research and debate in adoption, fostering, and child welfare.
Harnessing the power of relationships by Roger Bullock
In the social work vocabulary, there are several words that bring ease to fraught situations. The very mention of caring, sharing and relationships injects optimism into inauspicious scenarios. But despite the hopes we attribute to them, these terms are emotionally neutral; relationships are just as likely to be harmful as therapeutic and can be as much the cause of problems as agents for their solution. The danger is that we project onto them what we believe and want.
Read moreArticles
| No typical care story: How do care-experienced young people and foster carers understand fostering relationships? (Oct 2021) Eva A Sprecher, Ikesha Tuitt, Debbie Hill, Nick Midgley and Michelle Sleed | ‘They needed the attention more than I did’: How do the birth children of foster carers experience the relationship with their parents? (July 2018) Emma Adams, Alexander R Hassett and Virginia Lumsden |
| Confiding in others: Exploring the experiences of young people who have been in care (July 2020) Joshua Eldridge, Mary John and Kate Gleeson | Disenfranchised grief: The emotional impact experienced by foster carers on the cessation of a placement (March 2019) David Lynes and Angela Sitoe |
Members, sign in to your website account to access the restricted articles in the Adoption & Fostering journal for free. Dive deeper into the journal, members have free access to all issues of the journal since 1977.
Sibling relationships - prioritising, nurturing and most importantly sustaining
Emma Fincham, Fostering Consultant at CoramBAAF, considered the importance of sibling relationships and promising practice to nurture and sustain these crucial connections. She focused on the importance that these relationships are to a child’s sense of identity and what can be done to improve practice in this area and to enable these relationships to flourish even when there are barriers.
Continue your learning
Listen to Joan Hunt and Helen Little talk about sibling assessments and the impact they have on children and their sibling relationships. They discuss how sibling assessments have been conducted in the past and the variables this generated. As well as covering, what sibling assessments have looked like since the introduction of CoramBAAF's Sibling Assessment Report (SAR) and how it promotes consistency across reports, and the encouragement of a multi-disciplinary approach to capture multiple voices.
Beyond together or apart - Planning for, assessing and placing sibling groups
This powerful guide urges readers to prioritise sibling relationships in adoption, emphasising their lifelong impact and the need for thoughtful planning—beyond simply keeping siblings together or apart. Drawing on research, practice, and adopter insights.
Find out moreBook review by Kate Richardson
Kate Richardson, (Senior Practitioner, Linkings and Coordinations Family Based Care Children and Families, Edinburgh, Scotland) offers a detailed book review of ‘Beyond, together or apart’ - published in CoramBAAF’s ‘Adoption and Fostering’ journal.
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Read about fostering
All Books
Thinking about fostering?
Packed with essential information and advice, this book provides a realistic and honest insight into what it means to look after other people’s children and provide a safe and supportive home.
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The foster carer’s handbook on parenting teenagers
How can teenagers in foster care best be supported to deal with the challenges that life has thrown at them? How can their foster carers help them to find effective ways to manage their behaviour, engage with their peers, make the most out of education, and find their way towards a fulfilling adult life? This handbook aims to support foster carers as they identify the unique needs of the young person in their care.
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The foster carer's handbook on education
This clear, straightforward handbook aims to support foster carers so that they can help the children in their care to have the best possible experience of education.
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The foster carer's handbook on health
This guide is a must for foster carers seeking to support the health of a child or young person in their care, and in turn help to improve their life chances. It is particularly suited to newly approved foster carers, but experienced carers will also find it useful to confirm or expand their knowledge.
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Raising awareness
Take a look at The Fostering Network's website for more information about how you can get involved in raising awareness: