ster carers (the latter often termed ‘mainstream’, terminology which may need reviewing). The increasing number of children living in the care of relatives or friends reflects a growing impetus and emphasis in policy and practice on engaging family networks to support the care of children. The first national kinship care strategy was published in late 2023, setting out the DfE’s ambitions to champion kinship 62 care, reinforced a year later in the Keeping children safe, helping families thrive policy paper (DfE, 2024d). Table 8: Number of children in different foster care types as at 31 March Source: SP9 respondents. Number extrapolated from 122 respondents. SP 5 2015-16 SP 6 2017-18 SP 7 2019-20 SP 8 2021-22 SP 9 2023-24 Change over time Change P8 to P9 Child fostered with relative/friend (long term) 4,597 4,365 5,277 5,554 5,749 25% 4% Children fostered with relative-friend (approved adopter FFA-concurrent planning) 57 65 48 31 43 -24% 38% Children fostered with non-kinship carer (neither long term nor FFA-concurrent planning) 3,649 5,240 6,533 7,092 7,775 113% 10% Children fostered with non-kinship carer (long term) 19,374 17,576 17,142 16,693 14,254 -26% -15% Children fostered non- kinship carer (approved adopter FFA-concurrent planning) 269 341 339 461 442 64% -4% Children fostered with non-kinship carer (neither long term nor FFA-concurrent planning) 25,146 27,677 28,811 27,649 28,076 12% 2% Total 53,092 55,264 58,150 57,480 56,339 Nationally, applications from prospective foster carers were at a five-year low at the year ending March 2023, though 2024 data suggest a 6.25% increase at the year ending March 2024 (Ofsted, 2024b). Numerous reasons were posited by DCSs in SP9 interviews for the declining numbers of non-kinship foster carers. Many are reaching retireme