Local authority fostering rankings for England
October 2026 measurement. How we measureFosterScope ranks local authority fostering services and regional fostering hubs in England by Findability Score, a 0 to 100 measure of how easy each one is to find on Google and in AI assistants. In the October 2026 rankings, Devon ranks first with 73.7 and the middle score is 54.1. We scored 136 of the 150 services we measure. The other 14 are listed at the end as not measured, with the reason.
See what’s driving each score
The 4 checks behind every score are named by AI assistants, found on Google, website can be read, and structured data. Give us your email and we’ll send you a link.
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.
| Rank | Service | Hub | Findability Score | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Ealing | Foster with West London | 69.9 | |
| 5 | Bristol | Fostering South West | 69.8 | |
| 5 | Swindon Borough Council | Fostering South West | 69.8 | |
| 7 | Cheshire East | Foster4 | 69 | |
| 8 | Dudley Council | 68.8 | ||
| 9 | Shropshire Council | 68.4 | ||
| 10 | West Sussex County Council | 68.2 | ||
| 11 | Redcar & Cleveland | Foster with North East | 68 | |
| 12 | North East Lincolnshire Council | 67.9 | ||
| 13 | Sandwell Council | 67.7 | ||
| 14 | Birmingham City Council | 67.5 | ||
| 15 | Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council | 63.9 | ||
| 16 | East Sussex County Council | 63.2 | ||
| 17 | Reading | Local Authority Fostering South East | 62.7 | |
| 18 | East Riding of Yorkshire | Foster 4 Your Council | 62.1 | |
| 19 | Oxfordshire | Local Authority Fostering South East | 62 | |
| 19 | Wokingham | Local Authority Fostering South East | 62 | |
| 21 | Kingston upon Hull | Foster 4 Your Council | 61.7 | |
| 22 | Waltham Forest | Local Community Fostering | 61.1 | |
| 23 | Surrey | Local Authority Fostering South East | 60.9 | |
| 24 | Dorset | Fostering South West | 60.5 | |
| 25 | Herefordshire Council | 60.1 | ||
| 26 | Liverpool | Foster4 | 60 |
Services with the same Findability Score share a rank.
You can download these rankings as a file. For AI assistants says where the files are and what they hold.
Questions about the rankings
Which local authority fostering service in England is easiest to find online?
In the October 2026 rankings from FosterScope, Devon ranks first with a Findability Score of 73.7 out of 100, followed by Salford City Council (72.8) and Buckinghamshire Council (70.2).
Which regional fostering hub is easiest to find online?
In October 2026, Foster4 has the highest score of the 9 regional hubs we scored, at 47 out of 100.
How many local authority fostering services in England have no structured data?
107 of the 136 services scored in October 2026.