At the end of March 2025, only 37% of Medway’s children in care were living in Medway. The council had 98 fostering households in total, and approved eight new mainstream ones over the year.

That is the whole problem in two numbers.

Ofsted rated us Outstanding

In January 2026 Ofsted inspected South Coast Fostering and rated us Outstanding in all three judgement areas. The inspector raised no requirements and no recommendations, and summed us up as an agency that “provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good”.

We look after just over 20 fostering families across the south east and we intend to stay small.

What we pay Medway 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 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.

Why local matters here

Medway had 495 children in care at the end of March 2025, up 19 on the year, and 393 of them were in foster placements. Nearly 28% were placed outside the Medway boundary and more than twenty miles from home, going on Department for Education figures for March 2024. That is well above the England figure of roughly 17%.

Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, Strood and Rainham sit close together. A child fostered in Gillingham can usually stay at the same school. A child placed in Essex cannot.

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. 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.

Who you’d be working with

Feagal is the supervising social worker for Kent and Medway. He is the person you would actually see every few weeks, and the one who picks up when something has gone sideways.

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 or have fostered before. 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.

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. Read more about transferring to South Coast Fostering.

Where we cover

Chatham, Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham, plus the wider Kent area including Maidstone and Canterbury.

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.