Foster carers needed in Ringwood
South Coast Fostering is recruiting foster carers in Ringwood, Poulner, Hangersley, Hightown, Crow, Kingston, Bisterne and the Avon valley villages north of the town. Children from Ringwood who come into care are placed by Hampshire County Council, not by New Forest District Council. Hampshire was looking after 1,711 children in May 2026. The county publishes nothing at town or district level, so that is the nearest figure to Ringwood there is, and it is the number the shortage gets measured against. Ringwood is one of the New Forest's six market towns. It has a large town centre, employment estates in the town and more at Blashford, and it has held a market charter since March 1226, granted in the reign of Henry III, which makes 2026 its eight hundredth year as a market town. What it does not have is a railway station. Sharron is the supervising social worker for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. She visits at least every four weeks and sees the child at least every eighth week. Phone advice runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a dedicated out-of-hours team. Pay is £479.50 a week for a child aged 0 to 10 and £507.50 for 11 and over, per child. Additional needs placements pay £550 to £850 and parent and child placements £987. There is £330 to £1,500 a year towards council tax, rising with length of service, and most fostering income is untaxed under HMRC's qualifying care relief. Ofsted inspected South Coast Fostering in January 2026 and rated us Outstanding in all three judgement areas. Phone 023 8235 2020.
What do you need to Be a Foster carer?
Two practical things, and one long process.
The bedroom comes first. It has to be the child’s own room, kept for them, not a space that reverts to something else at the weekend. A baby is the one exception at the start, sleeping in a crib beside your bed, but the room still has to be accounted for.
The second is a driving licence and a car. That is not on every agency’s list, but for Ringwood it is on ours, because there is no station here. School runs, contact sessions, health appointments and training days all sit at the end of a drive, and the A31 and the A338 are the only ways to start one. If you do not drive, say so in the first conversation and we will be honest about whether it can work.
Then the assessment, which takes months. An assessing social worker asks about your own childhood, your relationships past and present, your money, your health and anyone else living in the house. References, a DBS check and local authority checks run alongside it. A panel reads the report and makes a recommendation. It is a lot to sit through. It is also the reason a child can be placed with a stranger safely.
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?
Inside the parish: Ringwood town, Poulner, Hangersley, Hightown, Crow, Kingston and Bisterne. Around it: Blashford, Ellingham, Ibsley, Harbridge, Sopley, Bransgore, Burley, St Leonards, Verwood, Fordingbridge, and over the boundary into Christchurch.
The New Forest cycling and walking plan published by Hampshire County Council in September 2025 names Ringwood and Fordingbridge as major settlements with no railway station. That one line explains most of what a Ringwood foster carer’s week looks like. Buses leave from Meeting House Lane. Everything else is the A31, running west towards Dorchester and east towards Southampton, or the A338, north to Salisbury and south to Bournemouth. The bypass that took the A31 out of the high street was built in two goes, the western half in the 1930s and the eastern half in the late 1970s.
New Forest District Council also notes that Ringwood and Bransgore look towards Bournemouth and Christchurch, while Fordingbridge and the north west of the district look to Salisbury. Anyone who assumes a fostering agency on the south coast means Southampton has the map the wrong way round for this end of Hampshire. If you live near Ringwood and have a bedroom going spare, call 023 8235 2020. Our wider county coverage is on the Hampshire fostering page.
Ringwood
Next Steps
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Eight hundred years of market days, and no station
Ringwood Town Council’s account of the charter is precise. A weekly Wednesday market and two annual fairs were granted in March 1226, in the reign of Henry III, which makes 2026 the eight hundredth year. The Market House went up in the Market Place in 1734 and came down in 1867, though parts of its stonework are still visible. The fairs stopped shortly before the Second World War. The livestock market closed in 1989.
None of that came with a railway. Ringwood is one of the larger settlements in the New Forest and it has no station, a point Hampshire County Council restated in the district’s cycling and walking plan in September 2025. For most residents that is a background irritation. For a foster carer it sets the shape of the week.
Work through what a placement actually asks of you. Contact between a child and their birth family is often twice a week, at a venue chosen by the local authority rather than by you. Reviews, medicals, dental appointments, therapy, court dates, training days. In a town with a station some of that is somebody else’s problem. In Ringwood it is yours, and it gets measured in fuel and in hours on the A31.
Which is why local carers count for more here, not less. A child from Ringwood placed 20 miles away does not simply move house. They move school, and they drive the A31 in reverse for every contact session for as long as the placement lasts. Of the 1,917 Hampshire children in care at 31 March 2024, the Department for Education recorded 370 living outside the county boundary and more than 20 miles from home.
Ringwood has more going for it than the road. It sits on the River Avon at the western edge of the New Forest, keeps a proper town centre, and holds employment estates in the town and at Blashford, which is more than several New Forest settlements can say.
Children’s services pass to a new unitary authority on 1 April 2028, elected in May 2027, and Hampshire County Council hands over the list. The A31 will still be the A31. Call 023 8235 2020.
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
