What is it like to foster a child with a disability or additional needs?

If you have thought about fostering a disabled child, perhaps the worry sounds like this: I’m not a nurse, so how would I cope? The honest answer is that nobody expects you to arrive knowing how to use a hoist, read a seizure plan or sign in Makaton. You learn those things for one particular child, with training and equipment that the fostering standards say must be provided. What follows is what the week actually looks like, from the school run to the hospital car park, and the part people forget, which is your own tiredness.

Please note: this is general information about fostering, not medical, legal or benefits advice. Figures and rules were checked in September 2026 against the sources we name. Decisions about a particular child are made with their social worker and the professionals who know them.

Who are the children?

“Disability or additional needs” covers a very wide group of children. It might be a seven-year-old with a learning disability who is working hard on getting dressed by herself, a teenager who is autistic and finds a noisy supermarket unbearable, a child who uses a wheelchair, a child who is deaf, or a toddler whose development has fallen behind after a hard start. Some children have one need. Others have several at once.

The Department for Education’s figures for 31 March 2025 show that 1,890 children in care in England were there mainly because of their own disability. That number understates how many disabled children are in care, because the statistics record only the main reason a child came into care. A child who came into care because of neglect, and who also has cerebral palsy, is counted under neglect. So a child with additional needs may arrive in your home even when nobody uses that phrase on the first phone call.

What the fostering standards say you are owed

Fostering agencies in England work to the Fostering Services National Minimum Standards, published by the Department for Education in 2011. The opening values statement promises that “the particular needs of disabled children and children with complex needs will be fully recognised and taken into account”. Three paragraphs turn that promise into something you can point to:

• Standard 4.6, on training: “For foster carers who offer placements to disabled children, this includes training specifically on issues affecting disabled children.”
• Standard 6.12, on equipment: “Any physical adaptations or equipment needed for the appropriate care of the children are provided to foster carers.”
• Standard 10.1, on your home: it must comfortably accommodate everyone who lives there, “including where appropriate any suitable aids and adaptations provided and fitted by suitably trained staff when caring for a disabled child.”

“Placements” in 4.6 is the standards’ word for a child living with you. The point for you is simpler: if a child needs a profiling bed, a bath seat or a ramp at the back door, you should not be paying for it or fitting it yourself, and you should be trained for that child rather than left to work it out from YouTube. We have written separately about getting your home ready for fostering, and our training and development page explains how learning builds as your experience grows.

A week that runs on appointments

This is the part that surprises people most. A disabled child can have a paediatrician, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a speech and language therapist, a dietitian and a specialist nurse, and each of them keeps their own diary. Some weeks you will have three appointments; some weeks none. It helps to keep one shared calendar, one folder for letters, and a short note after each appointment of what was said and what happens next. Those notes also form part of the records every foster carer keeps.

Hospitals are easier with a bit of preparation. The NHS says it “has to make it as easy for disabled people to use health services as it is for people who are not disabled”, and gives examples of what that can mean: a carer staying overnight, information in easy read, longer appointments and extra time to understand what is happening. For a child with a learning disability, ask whether they have a hospital passport, a short document about their health needs and how they communicate, and whether the hospital has a learning disability nurse. The NHS suggests asking the GP or social worker, and says it is important the nurse meets the child before or soon after they arrive.

School, and the plan that sits behind it

Many of these children will have an Education, Health and Care plan, usually called an EHC plan. It is the legal document that sets out a child’s special educational needs and the help the school must give. If a child in your home does not have one and you think they need it, you can ask. Government guidance says a request can be made by anyone who thinks an assessment may be necessary, “including doctors, health visitors, teachers, parents and family friends”. In practice you would raise it with the child’s social worker first, since they share the decisions about education.

The timescales are fixed. Council guidance, such as Surrey’s, gives six weeks for the council to decide whether to assess, and GOV.UK says the council has “20 weeks from the date they receive the request for the assessment to give you the final EHC plan”. If things cannot be resolved with the council, there is a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal. Every school also has a SENCo, the teacher who coordinates extra help, and every council has a virtual school that looks out for the education of children in care. Between them, those are usually the people who unstick things.

You may have read that the system is changing. The government’s Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, was published on 23 February 2026 and proposes a new Individual Support Plan for every child with additional needs. The House of Commons Library says the reformed system would need new legislation and “is not expected to come into effect until September 2029. Until then, the current system would remain in place.” The Department for Education has also said that no changes to support given through EHC plans will begin before September 2030. For a child arriving in your home this year, the rules above are the ones that apply.

Nights and mealtimes

Nights can be where the strain shows first. Some children with a learning disability struggle to understand why they need to sleep at all; others wake with pain, seizures or a need to be turned. If broken nights become the pattern, say so early. A GP can refer to a sleep specialist or a psychologist, and your supervising social worker needs to know, because a carer who has not slept properly for a month is not in a position to do their best.

Food can be its own project. A child may need adapted cutlery and bowls, food of a particular texture, or a diet a dietitian has worked out with you. Toilet training can take longer. Mattress protectors and a relaxed face help more than any chart, and the child should never feel that their accidents are a worry to you. None of this is glamorous. It is also the part of the day where a child learns that the adults in this house are steady.

Finding a way to talk together

Communication is where you will learn the most, and where the child will teach you. A child who does not use speech may use Makaton signs and symbols, a picture board, a tablet with a voice app, or gestures that only make sense once you know them. Ask the people who knew the child before you what their signs mean and write them down on day one. Easy read leaflets, picture timetables and a “now and next” card on the fridge can make a morning go smoothly that would otherwise end in tears.

Offer real choices, even small ones: which jumper, toast or cereal, the park or the pool. Children who have had most decisions made for them get a lot from being asked. If a child finds it hard to put their wishes across in meetings, an independent advocate can speak for them, and you can ask the child’s social worker to arrange one.

Money: the child’s benefits and your fee

Disability Living Allowance for children is paid for children under 16 who have difficulties walking or need much more looking after than other children their age. GOV.UK gives the weekly rate as between £30.30 and £194.60, depending on the help the child needs, and names foster-parents among the people who can claim. Each council also has its own policy on who applies for a child in care and how the money is used, so talk to the child’s social worker before you fill in a form. Treat the allowance as the child’s money, spent on what their disability costs.

Our own standard weekly payments are published on our fostering payments page: £479.50 per child for children aged 10 and under and £507.50 for those aged 11 and over, combining an allowance for the child’s care with a professional fee for your role. The same page says that specialist arrangements “can involve different payments depending on the needs and care required”. If you are talking to us about a child with significant needs, ask us to set out the proposed package, what it covers and what extra costs we would meet, before you agree to anything.

Your own week matters too

Caring for a disabled child can be physically hard. Lifting, broken sleep, and the constant thinking ahead take a toll, and it builds slowly enough that people miss it. Short breaks exist for exactly this. Some disabled children already have regular overnight stays with another family, and short break fostering is how that works in practice. For a child living with you full time, ask your supervising social worker what break arrangements can be made before you need them.

It also helps to have people around you who understand, whether that is other foster carers, your own family, or a friend who has learned the child’s routine well enough to sit with them for an evening. Tell your agency when things are hard. That conversation is part of the job, and it is much easier to have in week three than in month nine.

You won’t have to do this alone

If you are wondering whether you could care for a child with additional needs, you do not need a medical background to start that conversation. What matters more is patience, a sense of humour, a willingness to learn one child’s way of doing things, and room in your week for the appointments. We will talk honestly about the children who need homes in Southern England, the training we would offer and the support you would have as a foster carer, including out-of-hours support when things go wrong at night. At South Coast Fostering we like to say: “A child isn’t just given a home, they’re given a chance.” For some children, that chance starts with someone who is willing to learn their signs.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need medical or nursing experience to foster a disabled child?

No. The fostering standards say carers who look after disabled children should get training on issues affecting disabled children, and that any equipment or adaptations the child needs are provided. You learn the specific care for a specific child, with the health professionals who already know them.

Who pays for equipment and adaptations?

Under Standard 6.12 of the Fostering Services National Minimum Standards, any physical adaptations or equipment needed to care for a child are provided to foster carers. Standard 10.1 adds that aids and adaptations should be fitted by suitably trained staff. Ask about this before a child moves in.

Can a foster carer ask for an EHC plan assessment?

Government guidance says anyone who thinks an assessment may be necessary can make a request. In practice, talk to the child’s social worker and school first. The council has six weeks to decide whether to assess and 20 weeks from the request to issue a final plan.

Is Disability Living Allowance paid for a child in foster care?

GOV.UK lists foster-parents among the people who can claim Disability Living Allowance for a child under 16, at between £30.30 and £194.60 a week at current rates. Each council has its own policy for children in its care, so check with the child’s social worker before applying.

Will the SEND reforms change things for a child living with me?

Not for some time. The House of Commons Library says the reformed system needs new legislation and is not expected to come into effect until September 2029, and the Department for Education says no changes to support through EHC plans will begin before September 2030.