Health of fostering applicants

Fostering is a demanding role and all foster carers need to have sufficiently good emotional, mental and physical health to be able to care for the children looked after. Applicants are asked about their health at the time of application, and medical checks are carried out to confirm the information.

Historical medical problems, and even some current health issues would not necessarily prevent people from becoming foster carers; the assessing social worker would analyse how the health issues would impact the applicant’s ability to care for children looked after. For example, someone who had suffered depression previously, but had since undergone counselling or therapy, and is now stable with regular medication, may still be able to proceed with their fostering application. Reference checks and evidence of strong parenting would also support the application to foster and provide evidence that the applicants are able to care for children looked after.