Our mission is to mainstream foster care so more amazing people will empower and inspire young people in care.

Our values

Children first

Everything we do starts with improving the lives and opportunities of children growing up in care.

Care experience matters

We listen to and amplify the voices of people with care experience, ensuring their insight shapes our work and the change we want to see.

Collaboration

Strengthening fostering requires collaboration. We work alongside Local Authorities, charities and partners who share our commitment to children in care.

Purpose before profit

We believe fostering should be supported by organisations driven by public good, not commercial gain.

Challenge the status quo

We're willing to test new ideas and rethink how fostering works — always putting the safety and wellbeing of children and families first.

Who we are

We are a team of innovative social workers, designers, tech experts and entrepreneurs who want to change how fostering is done. We bring together lived experience, social work expertise and specialist skills in service and digital product design to build and grow initiatives that strengthen fostering.

Deep sector knowledge

We have deep public sector and fostering knowledge in the team, so we know where the system needs fixing to give children and young people better chances in life

Applied sector knowledge

We bring lived experience as foster carers and have a network of care-experienced advisors around us to ensure that we design the right things in the right way.

People centred design approach

We take a people centred approach to designing services and digital products that stand out and make a difference for the people we are designing for.

The NowFoster team

Our Work

We're reimagining how fostering works so more children can grow up in safe, stable homes. Our two flagship programmes open the door to more carers while improving the systems that support them.

Weekenders

Many children in care would benefit from having more consistent, loving adults in their lives. The Weekenders Programme is designed to help make that possible while opening the door to fostering for more people. Weekenders are fully approved foster carers who are matched with children in care for the long term; somewhat like an aunt or uncle. The relationship is designed to grow in flexibility and depth over time. Weekenders also creates a flexible pathway into fostering, adding capacity to the system and allowing people who may not have otherwise considered foster care to do so.

Digital foster carer recruitment platform

Recruiting the foster carers children need is one of the sector's biggest challenges. Our digital recruitment platform helps services reach and guide more prospective carers through the fostering journey. Developed with local authorities, regional recruitment hubs and charitable fostering agencies, it combines intuitive design, shared best practice and real-time insight into recruitment pipelines. Built using open, sector-led approaches, it aims to create shared digital infrastructure to help the sector recruit the carers children need.

How we're funded

Our charity is supported through philanthropic donations, grants and partnerships with Local Authorities. Generous contributions from individuals and philanthropic organisations form a vital part of our funding, alongside support from the public sector, enabling us to deliver our programmes and services. All funding is directed towards improving the lives of children in care and the families and carers who support them.

We are deeply grateful to all the organisations and individuals who have generously supported our work.

Our team

Now Foster is a team of innovative social workers, designers and entrepreneurs who want to change how fostering is done.

Sara Fernadez

Sara Fernadez

CEO

"I've been fostering since my mid twenties and it's been the most fun and rewarding thing I have ever done - nothing has taught more about the world and myself than being alongside children in care."

Laurie Kilby

Laurie Kilby

Co-founder and Social Work Practice Lead

"A newly qualified foster carer, social worker and teacher are all part of who I am and encompass what I stand for. The system has been broken for so long, the time for change is NOW!"

Jan Blum

Jan Blum

Experience Lead & Founding Partner

"My parents fostered when I was a kid and I loved growing up with teenagers around me. There was always an adventure. As a design professional I aim to use my skills to even the playing field as much as I can for those who have had a tougher start."

Katie Waldegrave

Katie Waldegrave

Co-founder and Partnerships Lead

"I began my career as a teacher; I know that without stability and love, it's impossible for children to learn and thrive. Having started Now Teach - a charity to help career-changers teach - I've seen how many of us are seeking a greater sense of purpose"

Trustees

Andy Theedom

Andy Theedom

Trustee

A Director in PwC's Local Public Services team who works with local authorities and charities across the UK, Andy brings challenge and insight based on his experience of working in and around fostering and achieving change to improve local outcomes.

Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson

Trustee

Chief executive of Frontline, England's largest social work charity. She was previously on the charity's senior team for over six years. She has 20+ years' experience in leadership, change management and communications at operational and strategic levels

Tasha Unwin

Tasha Unwin

Trustee

Tasha has worked as a frontline practitioner in Children's Services since 2018. She brings both this first hand knowledge, and her experience of fostering in her own family to Now Foster

Advisors

Dominic Campbell

Dominic Campbell

Strategic Adviser

Having spent his career working with government and launching startups, Dominic has a passion for developing public services fit for the digital age, above in children and families services. He is the founder of FutureGov and Impossible Ideas Inc.

Fostering reimagined. Now Foster is a Registered Charity in England and Wales number 1207932.
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