Caring Connections - Fostering and Career Recognition

 Earlier this month, the Government announced an £88 million drive to recruit up to 10,000 new foster carers in England, amid growing demand for placements. The focus is on numbers; however, the conversation still lacks an honest account of what fostering actually involves - and who that framing currently excludes.

Trevor Elliott MBE, a children’s advocate and Founder and Chief Executive of Kennedy Elliott, began fostering at the age of 24. Trevor has spoken publicly about fostering three boys over five years, describing it as 24/7 care equivalent to more than two decades of a standard 9-5, and why pretending this level of responsibility is not 'work' fails to reflect the reality of care.

Trevor argues that fostering should be recognised as a real career path, not something people solely do later in life as an act of goodwill. He believes treating it this way allows people to foster earlier, commit for the long term, and approach care with honesty, without diminishing the fulfilment, meaning, or family life that fostering can bring. From there, he can speak to why valuing carers properly matters, why it is possible to be paid and still care deeply, and why recognising fostering as skilled, full-time work is essential if more people are to step forward and stay.

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

Why do people often view fostering as a charity effort?

Because society has long told us that caring shouldn’t be paid. There’s a narrative that if you truly care, you should do it for free. That caring is not a job. I’m here to challenge that.

Fostering is a full-time commitment and that’s what children deserve. For me, it was more beneficial to work full-time for the children in my care than to split myself between another job and give them only 50% of my effort. Compassion and professionalism can coexist, and I’m here to ‘make caring the new cool.’

Why is fostering really more comparable to a career?

Because it is 24 hours a day. Five years of fostering for me wasn’t five years of a 9-5 job, it was five years of nights, weekends, school runs, meetings, therapy appointments, emotional regulation, and constant safeguarding responsibility. 

If you calculated the hours, it would equate to decades in a standard role. Fostering isn’t something you casually do, it’s a commitment and I want carers - especially young carers - to be taken seriously for that commitment.

Why is it possible to be paid to foster and still bring the caring connection that foster children need?

I wasn’t financially free. I had to earn money to survive and provide properly for the children in my care. I’m not afraid to say that I received an allowance to foster, but if you worked out the hours, it would come to less than minimum wage. 

Fostering isn’t a 9-5 role, it’s 24 hours a day - there’s no clocking off or annual leave in the traditional sense. Even on holiday, you are still the responsible adult. You are still emotionally present.

An allowance isn’t payment for love, it enables stability and allows you to dedicate yourself fully without splitting your focus between another job. It ensures the child has what they need: clothes, activities, experiences and consistency.

We don’t question whether teachers care because they’re paid. Or nurses. Or social workers.

Being paid doesn’t remove compassion, because love is not cancelled out by professionalism. If anything, being supported financially allows you to show up more consistently, more calmly, and more fully.

You can be paid and still care deeply. The two are not opposites, they are what make sustainable care possible.

What are the benefits to society of foster care being recognised as a career?

When fostering is recognised as a respected career path, more capable people including younger adults will step forward confidently. It creates structure, improves training, and improves retention. Most importantly, it gives children stability.

If we truly want better outcomes for vulnerable children, we need to stop treating care as a side act of kindness and start recognising it as essential, skilled and valuable work.