Foster carers needed in Eastleigh
South Coast Fostering is recruiting foster carers in Eastleigh and right across the borough, from Chandler's Ford and Hiltingbury down through Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Horton Heath to Hedge End, West End, Botley, Bursledon, Hamble-le-Rice and Netley. Children from Eastleigh who come into care are placed by Hampshire County Council, not by Southampton, even though the borough wraps around the city's eastern and northern edges.
The borough had 136,400 residents at the 2021 Census, up 8.9 per cent on 2011. Eastleigh town's own population has not been published separately since the 2011 Census, so treat any town-level figure you see with some caution.
In May 2026 Hampshire was responsible for 1,711 children in care, 21 more than the year before. The composition matters as much as the count: half are aged 13 or over and 118 are unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Most of the children needing a bed in this county are secondary school age. Ofsted judged Hampshire's children's services Outstanding at a short inspection in June 2024. That judgement category no longer exists; Ofsted retired it on 1 April 2026.
Sharron is our supervising social worker for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and she would be your day-to-day support in Eastleigh. She calls in at least every four weeks and sees the child at least every eight. Telephone advice is there round the clock all year, with a dedicated out-of-hours team.
We pay £479.50 a week for a child aged 0 to 10 and £507.50 for a child of 11 or over, per child. It is £550 to £850 where a child has additional needs, and £987 for parent and child. There is a council tax contribution of between £330 and £1,500 a year that grows the longer you foster. Under HMRC's qualifying care relief, most of what you receive is not taxed.
Ofsted inspected South Coast Fostering in January 2026 and rated it Outstanding in all three judgement areas, with no requirements and no recommendations raised. Just over 20 families were fostering with us in July 2026. Call 023 8235 2020.
What do you need to be a foster carer?
Time is a harder requirement to meet than space, and it is the one people underestimate. Foster carers are expected at school twice a day, at review meetings, at contact sessions and at appointments booked without anyone asking you first. Six weeks of school holidays have to be covered. If your job cannot bend, this will not fit around it.
Space still counts. The child needs a bedroom of their own, and that is a hard requirement in almost every placement. A baby can start off in a crib in your room, so the rule relaxes at the beginning for infant placements, though not indefinitely.
The rest of it is the sort of thing that does not go on a form. Can you hold a routine together when nobody thanks you for it? Will you say when you are struggling? Assessment digs into your own upbringing and your household finances, and it runs for months rather than weeks.
Support you'll receive from us
- 24/7 support from your supervising social worker
- £507.50 a week in fostering allowance and fees to foster
- Intensive training program to help you be the best you can be
Where are we recruiting?
Eastleigh town first, then the parishes around it: Bishopstoke, Chandler’s Ford, Fair Oak and Horton Heath, Botley, Bursledon, Hamble-le-Rice, Hedge End, Hound and West End. Allbrook, Boyatt Wood, Netley, Otterbourne and Colden Common as well.
The borough’s local plan describes it as predominantly suburban, with Eastleigh as the main town alongside Chandler’s Ford and Hedge End, and sizeable settlements strung out between them. A carer in Botley and a carer in Hiltingbury live in the same borough and nothing like the same place.
What they share is reach. Eastleigh station and Southampton Airport Parkway both sit on the main line running from London down to Weymouth, with branches east towards Fareham and Portsmouth and west towards Romsey and Salisbury. Southampton Airport is in Eastleigh borough rather than in Southampton. A foster carer based here can get to most of south Hampshire without much trouble, which matters when meetings and contact arrangements are set somewhere other than your kitchen.
That reach counts for more with an older child, who may be getting themselves to college or to a contact session rather than being driven. In February 2026, 372 Hampshire children were living with an independent agency rather than a council carer, roughly two in five of all the county’s fostering placements, so this is a well-worn route. If you live here and have a room, call 023 8235 2020. Our other Hampshire pages are linked from the Hampshire fostering page.
Eastleigh
Next Steps
Depending on where you are in your fostering journey, we have a few suggested next steps.
Download Our Guide To Fostering
Arrange for a call back
Ask us a question via whatsapp
We keep your personal information safe, and only use it to contact you in the way you’ve asked us to.
A borough on a boundary
Eastleigh Borough sits against Southampton’s eastern and northern edges, and that line does more work than it looks. Everything on the Eastleigh side, Bishopstoke and Hedge End and Hamble, comes under Hampshire County Council for children’s services. Cross into the city and it is Southampton City Council, a separate unitary authority with its own social workers and its own figures.
That changes in April 2028. The government confirmed on 25 March 2026 that Eastleigh and Southampton will be merged into one new authority, South West Hampshire Council, with elections in May 2027 and services transferring the following April. It is the sort of reorganisation that absorbs a great deal of attention inside a council and very little outside one.
What will not change is the practical geography. The M3 and the M27 both cross the borough, and Eastleigh’s own local plan is blunt about the result: peak hour traffic congestion on the motorways and on many of the borough’s roads. Against that, Eastleigh has a main line station, so does Southampton Airport Parkway, and the branches run towards Fareham and Portsmouth one way and Romsey and Salisbury the other. A lot of what fostering involves happens somewhere other than home, and Eastleigh’s road and rail links make that easier than the map might suggest.
The town’s history is in engineering. The local plan records Eastleigh’s association with the marine, aviation and rail industries, and the industrial areas at Eastleigh, Chandler’s Ford, Hedge End and Hamble are still working. The town council has grown too: it merged with Boyatt Wood Parish Council to form a single Eastleigh Town Council with 22 councillors across seven wards, first elected in May 2026.
None of which tells you whether to foster. What it tells you is that a child from Eastleigh who has to move does not have to move far, provided somebody local has a spare room. That is the whole of it. Call 023 8235 2020, or read about the rest of our county coverage on the Hampshire fostering page.
book a call about fostering:
We’d be happy to give you a 15-20 minute call to tell you about fostering. Don’t worry, there’s no pressure from us – it’s honestly a chance for you to ask us any questions you have about fostering, and your suitability. Just complete this short form
