East Sussex received 276 fostering enquiries in 2024/25. Around 11% of them ended in an approval.

That is not unusual, and it is not the council’s fault. Fostering enquiries take months to convert and most people who ring up decide it isn’t for them. But it explains why a county with 688 children in care cannot recruit its way out of the gap quickly.

Ofsted rated us Outstanding

In January 2026 Ofsted inspected South Coast Fostering and rated us Outstanding in all three judgement areas: the experiences and progress of children, how well children are helped and protected, and the effectiveness of leaders and managers. The inspector raised no requirements and no recommendations.

Their summary: “The independent fostering agency provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good.”

We look after just over 20 fostering families and we intend to stay small. The reason we can work like this is that nobody here carries a caseload they can’t do justice to.

What we pay East Sussex foster carers

£479.50 a week for a child aged 0 to 10. £507.50 a week for a child aged 11 and over. Per child, every week, whether the placement lasts a fortnight or five years.

Caring for a child with additional needs pays £550 to £850 a week. Parent and child placements, where you support a young parent and their baby together, pay £987 a week. We also contribute between £330 and £1,500 a year towards your council tax, rising the longer you foster with us.

Most fostering income is tax free under HMRC’s qualifying care relief. Ask us and we’ll go through the numbers with you properly, including what your household would actually take home.

The support behind it

Your supervising social worker visits at least every four weeks and sees the child at least every eight. That’s a floor, not a target, and in practice it’s usually more.

There’s telephone advice twenty four hours a day, every day of the year, including a dedicated out of hours team. Fostering doesn’t keep office hours. Placements break down at eleven at night, not at half past two on a Tuesday.

Training runs from before you’re approved and carries on afterwards, funded by us.

Where East Sussex’s shortage actually bites

The council reports that 21.2% of its children in care were placed outside the county and more than twenty miles from home in 2024/25, against an England figure of 17.4%. It had 259 active fostering households.

East Sussex does better than most at keeping children with its own carers: 76% of those in foster care were with in-house carers, against a national figure of 60%. The pressure shows up instead in the children it cannot place locally at all.

Brighton and Hove is a separate council and its position is starker. Of its 332 children in care at 31 March 2025, 186 were placed outside the city. It has said it wants 22 new foster carers a year, and noted that over 35% of its existing carers live in West Sussex rather than in Brighton.

Who you’d be working with

Sally Barnett is our registered manager. She fostered before she managed, which changes the tenor of most conversations. Ofsted named her in the January 2026 report.

Richard Norwood is our director and Melanie Yearwood is our responsible individual.

Do you qualify?

Most people who assume they can’t foster, can. You don’t have to own your home, be married, be under 55, or have children of your own. You can work, though you’ll need genuine flexibility during the day.

You will need a spare bedroom for most placements. Babies are the exception: a newborn can sleep in a crib in your room at the start.

Along the coast you can often manage on buses and the train. Inland, towards Heathfield or Wadhurst, you will need a car.

Already fostering somewhere else?

Transferring is more straightforward than most carers expect, and because you’re already approved it moves faster than a first assessment. If you have a child in placement, a transfer protocol meeting protects their stability throughout. Read more about transferring to South Coast Fostering.

Where we cover in East Sussex

Brighton and Hove, Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Bexhill, Seaford, Uckfield and Crowborough.

Talk to us

Call 023 8235 2020, or send a message on WhatsApp if that’s easier. The first conversation takes about fifteen minutes and commits you to nothing at all.

We’d rather you asked the awkward questions now than found out later.