Navigating the Journey to Becoming a Foster Parent in 2025
Check out our step-by-step guide to becoming a foster parent with ACS, from registering your initial interest all the way to welcoming home your first foster child.
What are the steps to becoming a foster parent in 2025?
If you’re just starting out on your foster care journey, you likely have many questions about what it’s like to be a foster parent. Let’s take a look at the different steps to becoming a foster parent, as well as some tips to help you through each stage of the process.
Step 1: register your interest with us
If you’re interested in fostering children who share your faith or culture, ACS is the perfect choice for you. When you enquire with us via phone call or by filling out our online form, you’ll speak with one of our friendly fostering advisors who’ll help point you in the right direction and help get you started on your journey to fostering.
Top tip: Don’t hold back on asking any and every question which comes to mind when you speak with our team— from finances to the ins-and-outs of day to day life as a foster parent, we’d love to answer all of your questions to help you decide if fostering is right for you.
Step 2: Have a home visit with our team
We’ll arrange for a member of our team to visit you at your home, either digitally via video call or in person. During this visit we’ll ask you some questions, share all of the information that you’ll need, answer any of your questions and take a look at your spare bedroom to ensure that it’s suitable for a young person. There’s no commitment at this stage of the process, and if you decide now isn’t the right time for you and your family to start fostering, that is perfectly okay!
Top tip: it’s a great idea to have a whiz around to make sure your home is looking neat and tidy before your visit, and to sit down and plan any questions you’d like to ask our team member before they arrive.
Step 3: Apply to foster
After your initial assessment, if you’re a good fit to foster, you’ll be given the opportunity to proceed with an application to become a foster parent. This involves completing a range of paperwork, where we’ll collect a range of your personal details, including any relevant experience you may have, details about your home and family life, your health, finances and whether or not you have a criminal record. We’ll also ask for your consent to proceed with the application, after which you’ll move on to the assessment phase of your fostering journey.
Top tip: remember that, during your application, you can reach out to our team for support throughout the process.
Step 4: Your Form F assessment
Once your application is approved, you’ll begin your formal fostering assessment with one of our social workers. They will visit you at your home 8-10 times in order to have discussions with you and observe your family life. The information they gather will be put into a document known as a ‘Form F’, which will detail everything about your life and what makes you a great candidate to foster.
During this stage you’ll also take part in our fantastic training, which includes a mandatory three-day course which will introduce you to all of the basics of fostering. This training is also a great opportunity to meet other foster parents in your local area and build lasting friendships.
Top tip: During your assessment phase, it’s essential to be completely honest about your life and your personal history. Some of the questions you’ll be asked may cover sensitive topics, but they will be handled with care and consideration by your assessor.
Step 5: Checks and references
As your assessment goes on, we’ll conduct a variety of checks and references behind the scenes to ensure your suitability to foster. These will include a DBS from the UK government, health and safety checks on your home, and a pet assessment to ensure that any family pets are safe around children.
Top tip: Be aware that anyone over the age of 18 in your home will be required to consent to a DBS check in order to proceed with your fostering journey; this includes any adult children who may be living at home.
Step 6: Fostering Panel
The final step of the approval process is a fostering panel meeting with a group of independent fostering specialists who will review your Form F document and make a recommendation to our team at ACS as to whether or not we should approve you as a foster parent. Once you receive a recommendation, the final decision will be made here at ACS by our Agency Decision Maker, Mohammed Bashir, who you’ll get to know personally during your time with ACS. You’ll then receive a letter confirming your approval.
Top tip: While it’s natural to feel nervous on such a big day, rest assured that the team here at ACS have full confidence in you when you reach the panel stage, and you’ll have your assessing social worker by your side on the day to help you in answering any questions and in asking questions of your own. You can also bring along a loved one to your panel meeting for support.
Step 7: Matching
Here at ACS, we have a particular focus on matching children with families who share their culture or religion to preserve the child’s sense of identity and belonging. Our referrals team will work behind the scenes and use a careful matching process to send potential matches your way, which may also include children whose culture or religion differs from your own, but who we believe you would be able to provide excellent care for.
Top tip: While we specialise in ACS in cultural and faith-based matching, we encourage all of our foster parents to be open to welcoming children from different backgrounds into their home. We train and support our foster parents to be able to support the needs of children from religions and cultures different to their own, a you’ll have a whole network of multi-faith support as a part of our community of foster parents.
Step 8: Begin your journey together
When you find a suitable match, you’ll confirm this with your Supervising Social Worker and a Placement Officer, and arrangements will be made for the child to meet with you. It can be nerve-wracking for both parties when you meet for the first time and welcome them into your home. Greet them with a warm smile and be ready to comfort them or give them their space if they need it.
Top tip: Playing close attention to a child’s referral can help you to get to know them a little before they arrive and provide some home comforts. For example, if you learn from their social worker that they love a particular cartoon, you could buy a soft toy of the character for their bedroom.
Ready to foster? Let’s get started!
Across the UK there are more and more children waiting for safe and nurturing homes. Many of these children have endured challenges in their young lives, with some even having arrived unaccompanied in the UK and are seeking sanctuary, alone and afraid.
If you believe you could be the person to give a loving and safe home to a child in need of a compassionate caregiver, contact our team today, or learn more about what it takes to become a foster parent.
