Fostering Siblings: Keeping Brothers and Sisters Together

Two children arrive on the same afternoon. One bag between them, and the older one carrying it. Whether they get to stay together often comes down to something plain: whether anybody had room for both.

Please note: this article gives general information, not personal advice. Payment and tax figures are correct at August 2026. For your own tax position, check HMRC’s guidance on qualifying care relief or speak to an accountant.

Why are brothers and sisters split up?

Rarely because somebody decided it was better for them.

The Children’s Commissioner for England put the figure at 37% of children in care who have a sibling being separated from at least one of them. That is roughly 20,000 children. Her office published the analysis in January 2023.

The reason is usually arithmetic. A household with one free bedroom can take one child. So when a brother and sister come into care on a Tuesday night and the only two homes with space are forty miles apart, they go to both.

And it is getting harder, not easier.

There were 42,190 fostering households in England at 31 March 2025, down 1% in a year and 7% since 2021. The number of approved mainstream carers has fallen 12% since 2021. Fewer homes means the ones with space for two get fought over.

What does the law actually say?

The intention is clear enough. Section 22C(8)(c) of the Children Act 1989 says that where a local authority is accommodating a child and that child’s sibling, the placement must be one that enables the two of them to live together.

Then comes the qualifier, and it does a lot of work. Section 22C(7)(b) requires the council to comply with that duty “so far as is reasonably practicable in all the circumstances of C’s case”. In practice, not reasonably practicable usually means nobody could be found.

Something did change this spring. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 passed into law on 30 April 2026. It puts a clearer duty on local authorities to promote and keep up relationships between siblings in care, whether or not they live in the same house. Half siblings and step siblings are included, and distance is not an excuse. The duty does not apply where contact would not be in a child’s best interests.

If you want the wider picture on children staying connected to the people they came from, we have written about maintaining family ties in foster care.

Do you need a bedroom each?

Not always.

National Minimum Standard 10 for fostering services says each child over the age of three should have their own bedroom. Sharing is allowed, but not casually. The child’s responsible authority has to agree it, the fostering service has to assess the risks, including any history of abuse and what the children themselves say they want, and the decision has to be recorded in writing.

So a three bedroom house is not automatically a one child house. Two sisters aged four and six may share very happily. A fifteen year old and a seven year old almost certainly should not, whatever they tell you.

Babies are a different question again, and we have covered it separately in whether you can foster a baby without a spare room.

Isn’t three children the limit?

Yes, and siblings are the exception to it.

• Schedule 7 of the Children Act 1989 sets the usual fostering limit at three children at any one time
• Going above three normally needs a written exemption from the local authority where you live, naming each child
• Where all the children are siblings of each other, no exemption is needed at all

CoramBAAF sets that last point out plainly in its guidance for England. It is the single most useful thing to know if you are looking at a group of three.

Is fostering two harder than fostering one?

Yes. Not twice as hard, but harder in ways people do not expect.

They arrive with a relationship you did not build and cannot see into.

• The older one has often been doing the parenting, getting the younger one dressed and fed and out of the door, and will not hand that job over just because you have offered
• They may compete for your attention, loudly, for months
• One can settle in three weeks and the other in three years
• An argument at your kitchen table can be about something that happened long before you met either of them

Here is the other side of it. You are not the only person in that house who remembers their mother’s kitchen. Somebody else was there. Nothing we provide, no training and no therapy, replaces that.

Which is one reason Fostering Hearts is actively looking for carers who can take brothers and sisters. It sits on our list of who needs fostering alongside teenagers and long-term carers.

What are you paid for two children?

Payments are per child, per week, for as long as each one is placed with you.

• £479.50 a week for a child aged 0 to 10
• £507.50 a week for a young person aged 11 or over

Two eleven year olds comes to £1,015 a week. Across a full year that is £52,780. We also pay a monthly contribution towards your council tax, and it goes up the longer you foster with us.

Fuller detail sits in our article on foster carer allowance and pay.

Would you pay tax on £52,780?

Probably not, though nobody who has not seen your figures can promise you that.

Qualifying Care Relief gives foster carers a fixed amount for the household plus a weekly amount for every child in their care. For the 2026/27 tax year the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group gives the amounts as:

• £20,440 fixed per household
• £435 a week for each child under 11
• £515 a week for each young person aged 11 or over

Two young people aged 11 and over, placed for a whole year, lifts that threshold to around £74,000. Fostering income below your own threshold is not taxed as profit. You still register with HMRC as self employed and file a return each year.

Check your own position before you rely on any of it.

You will not be doing this on your own

Two children means twice the appointments and school runs in two directions.

• Your supervising social worker supports around six families, so you are not one of forty names on a spreadsheet
• Our lead education consultant tracks how children are getting on at school, which matters when one sibling is flying and the other is falling behind
• Independence workshops cover first aid, vaping, and rights and entitlements
• Every child gets a pocket-sized card with the numbers to ring if something is worrying them
• Our Youth Council has written questions that get asked at fostering panel

Ofsted inspected Fostering Hearts from 18 to 22 November 2024 and described us as a good agency with outstanding leadership and management. One of our carers told the inspectors: “My supervising social worker has been an absolute lifeline for me. I feel so much more confident in my role because of her.” You can read more on our Ofsted page.

Approval takes four to six months. You need to be over 21 and have a stable home. You do not need to own it, be married, have children of your own, or hold any childcare qualification. Emotional resilience matters more than any of that.

Frequently asked questions

Can I foster two siblings with only one spare bedroom?

Sometimes. National Minimum Standard 10 says children over three should have their own bedroom, but sharing is permitted where the child’s responsible authority agrees and the fostering service has assessed and recorded the risks. It depends on the ages of the two children and what they have been through. We will tell you honestly whether your house works.

Does the law say siblings must be placed together?

Almost. Section 22C(8)(c) of the Children Act 1989 requires a placement that lets siblings live together, but section 22C(7)(b) qualifies it with “so far as is reasonably practicable”. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 added a clearer duty on councils to keep sibling relationships going where children do live apart.

Do you get paid more for fostering two children?

Yes. Fostering Hearts pays per child, so two placements means two weekly payments. At August 2026 that is £479.50 a week for a child aged 0 to 10 and £507.50 for a young person aged 11 or over.

Can I foster siblings if I already have children of my own?

Yes. Your own children are part of the assessment and will be asked how they feel about it, which is a conversation worth having early. Bedroom arrangements have to work for everybody in the house, not only the children arriving.

Are sibling groups ever bigger than two?

Often. Groups of three and four do come up, and they are the hardest of all to place. Schedule 7 of the Children Act 1989 caps most carers at three children at a time, and siblings are exempt from that cap, so a group of four can stay together with one family.