Almost 50% of people think if you’re over 55 you can’t be a foster parent. As a rule, fostering service providers prefer foster parents to be over 21 years old but legally you can apply to foster from the age of 18 years dependent on your ability and circumstances. There is no upper age limit and many foster parents continue well into their 70s. What is important is that you are fit enough to care for a child or young person who is placed with you. The majority of foster carers are in the 40 to 60-year age bracket.

There is no regulation or requirement that you need to be married to foster. You can be married, in a civil partnership, single, separated, divorced or living together. If you are living together, then most fostering providers would want like you to have been together for at least a two-year period.

Your sexual orientation or gender identity has no bearing on your ability to provide a loving nurturing and safe environment for a child or young person. The above should never be a barrier to you applying to foster.

Most fostering service providers will require you to have a spare bedroom for a child or young person that you foster. There is however no regulatory requirement for foster children over the age of 3 to have their own bedroom. National Minimum Standards states that a child over the age of 3 years should have their own bedroom where this is possible, taking into account the child’s wishes and feelings.