Foster care recruitment is a national problem. At a time when the number of children entering care has risen, some areas have seen their stock of foster carers fall.
Birmingham City Council - the largest in England - has seen an 11.7 per cent decline in foster carers between 2014/15 and 2016/17 (see graphics). Over the same period, the number of looked-after children cared for by the council has remained roughly the same, although the proportion in foster care has fallen from 73 to 69 per cent.
An additional factor for Birmingham has been the reputation problems the authority has experienced following a succession of "inadequate" Ofsted inspection judgments since 2009, and which have led to the creation of an independent trust to run children's social care services from next April.
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