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FosterScope
October 2026 measurement. How we measure

Families are searching for fostering near them. Who do they find?

FosterScope helps local authorities get found first by families who want to foster.

FosterScope measures how easy it is to find every local authority fostering service in England on Google and in AI assistants, and whether families end up with the local authority or with an independent fostering agency (IFA). We publish the results free every month as the FosterScope rankings, covering 150 services. Local authorities and regional fostering hubs then work with us to improve their results, so more local families enquire with them instead of an IFA.

See where your service standsWhat we do for local authorities
149,795

First enquiries about fostering made in England in 2024 to 2025. Every one started with someone looking.

Ofsted, Fostering in England 2024 to 2025. Checked 20 September 2026.

45%

Share of mainstream fostering households in England that foster with an IFA, as at 31 March 2025.

Ofsted, Fostering in England 2024 to 2025. Checked 20 September 2026.

107 of 136

Services with no structured data, the labels in a web page’s code that tell Google and AI assistants who runs it.

The October 2026 rankings.

What we measure

What does FosterScope measure? 2 numbers: how findable you are, and how much of your local market you win.

FosterScope measures 2 numbers for every local authority fostering service in England each month. The Findability Score shows how easy the service is to find, and the local authority controls it. Share of Local Fostering Voice shows how much of the Google results local families see come from the local authority rather than from IFAs, and it has to be won against competitors. The score tells you what to fix. The share tells you whether the fix was enough, and it keeps moving because IFAs keep competing.

The Findability Score

0 to 100

The Findability Score is a 0 to 100 measure of how easy a local authority fostering service is to find on Google and in AI assistants. It checks 4 things, all on the local authority’s own website and listings, so the local authority can raise it: whether AI assistants name the service (30%), whether it appears in Google’s local results (30%), whether search engines can read its website (20%), and whether it carries structured data (20%).

Average across 136 services, October 2026. Local authorities do well in Google’s local results and badly in the behind-the-scenes code that AI assistants rely on.

Found on Google
81.6
Website can be read
73.2
Named by AI assistants
41.6
Structured data Lowest
10.6

Share of Local Fostering Voice

A percentage

Share of Local Fostering Voice is the percentage of Google results a family sees, when they search for fostering in their area, that come from their local authority and its regional hub rather than from IFAs. It’s FosterScope’s headline number because it shows who is winning local families. It can fall even while the Findability Score rises, if IFAs spend more. We report it every month in each client’s dashboard.

One area, one month, illustrative. Read left to right as the results a family is shown.

Independent fostering agenciesLocal authority or hubOther

We publish the share only where we can identify enough of the local results to be accurate. Where we can’t, we say so. We never show a zero for a service we couldn’t measure.

How the rankings work

Can a local authority pay to rank higher? No.

FosterScope measures every local authority fostering service in England by the same method, every month, whether it’s a client or not. Clients pay to become easier to find, and their ranking rises only if that works. Nobody can buy a rank.

We search the way families do

We run the searches and questions that people thinking about fostering actually use, for every area, on Google and in AI assistants, once a month.

We measure everyone the same way

Each monthly measurement starts at noon on the 1st of the month, and we measure every service the same way, so results are fair to compare.

We publish our method

Our method and its weightings are published in full on the methodology page.

We say when we can’t measure

If a service’s website blocks our checks, we list it as not measured, with the reason. We never give it a zero, or a half-measured score that looks better than it is.

Read the methodology

A Findability Score can differ by up to 2.6 points between 2 measurements taken on the same day. That’s why FosterScope judges progress on the trend over several months and on Share of Local Fostering Voice, never on a single month’s rank. Our own re-measurement, 7 August 2026. Checked 2 September 2026.

For local authorities and regional fostering hubs

We make local families find you first. Then we show you it working.

Local authorities lose potential foster carers to IFAs because families searching online find the IFA first. FosterScope fixes that in 3 ways, and you choose how much help you want.

The dashboard
A private online dashboard showing your 2 numbers every month, how you compare with neighbouring local authorities and IFAs, and a to-do list in priority order with a named person in your team against each task. You can add your own Google Search Console data (Google’s free report of how people find your site) beside ours. Your team does the work, and we review progress with you every 3 months.
Dashboard plus expert help
Everything in the dashboard, plus a written review when you start, a monthly call, and a report every 3 months on your local market and what IFAs are doing. If you want it, we also do the work with you: new pages written in your voice, fixes worked through with your web team, and a simpler way for families to enquire.
One-off projects
Recruitment campaigns, website builds, training for your team, and mystery enquiries, where we pose as an interested family to test how your enquiry process responds. Each is scoped and priced separately.
Talk to us about your service

What we promise, and what we do not

FosterScope promises 2 things: more fostering enquiries, and a bigger share of local enquiries coming to your local authority instead of to IFAs. You’ll see both in your own data. We don’t promise more approved foster carers, because approvals depend on things we don’t control: your assessment capacity, your offer to carers, and how long each step takes. We say so before we’re asked.

Where families are lost

Where are families lost? At the first step.

In England in 2024 to 2025, fostering services received 149,795 enquiries but only 8,290 applications: about 1 application for every 18 enquiries. FosterScope works on that first step. We help families find their local authority instead of an IFA, and we can make the local authority’s enquiry page work better. What happens after an application is the local authority’s own work. Our fostering statistics for England set out the rest of Ofsted’s figures.

Ofsted, Fostering in England 2024 to 2025. Checked 20 September 2026.

149,795
enquiries
8,290
applications
1 in 18
enquiries become an application
45%
of mainstream households foster with an IFA
The rankings

Local authority fostering rankings for England, October 2026

FosterScope ranks 136 local authority fostering services and regional hubs in England by Findability Score. In October 2026, Devon ranks first with 73.7 out of 100. Search for your local authority, filter by regional fostering hub, and see the 4 checks behind every score. Services we couldn’t measure are listed at the end, with the reason.

RankServiceTypeHubFindability Score
1DevonAuthorityFostering South West73.7
2Salford City CouncilAuthorityFoster for Greater Manchester72.8
3Buckinghamshire CouncilAuthority70.2
4EalingAuthorityFoster with West London69.9
5BristolAuthorityFostering South West69.8
136 scored, 14 not measured, the October 2026 rankingsSee the full rankings
This month in the rankings

What changed since September 2026? 4 services improved and 74 fell.

Between the last 2 monthly measurements, 4 local authority fostering services in England raised their Findability Score by more than 2.6 points, the most a score can vary between 2 measurements on the same day. 74 fell by more than that. The other 51 moved too little to count as real change. Nottinghamshire rose most, from 48.7 to 57.4. Services inside the shaded band moved less than normal variation.

We changed how we measure fostering visibility this month, so part of each change since September comes from an update to our method, not only from changes a service made.

Improved4
Fell74
No real change51
Biggest risers
Nottinghamshire48.7 to 57.4, +8.7
Halton55.1 to 58.8, +3.7
Stoke-on-Trent City Council47.8 to 51.1, +3.3
Biggest falls
Westminster48.5 to 37.9, -10.6
Newham48.9 to 38.7, -10.2
London Borough of Sutton55.1 to 45.3, -9.8

129 services were measured in both months. 5 were not measured in September 2026, 2 are new to the rankings, and 14 are not measured. Our own re-measurement, 7 August 2026. Checked 2 September 2026.

Latest analysis

All analysis

Find your service in the rankings, then ask us what your number means.

Book a free conversation about your Findability Score, your share of local families, and the 3 things we’d fix first. We’ve spent years working alongside local authorities, and we built FosterScope to help them attract more foster carers directly.

Talk to us about your serviceSee where every service stands