Can Foster Carers Give a Child Medicine?

A child moves in with a course of antibiotics half finished, or an inhaler nobody has explained properly yet. Giving them their medicine is one of the most ordinary things you will do as a foster carer. It is also one of the things new carers worry about most.

Please note: this is general information, not personal or medical advice. It reflects UK guidance on consent and medicines correct as of August 2026. Always follow your fostering service’s own procedures, and speak to the prescribing GP, a pharmacist or your supervising social worker about a specific child. See the NHS’s guidance on consent to treatment for children and young people.

Do Foster Carers Give Children Medicine?

Yes. Most children in foster care need medicine at some point. A course of antibiotics. Hay fever tablets in June. An inhaler. Sometimes something more complicated.

Giving it to them safely is part of the job. It is also more structured than doing it for your own children, because there is paperwork behind it, and rightly so.

What Counts as Medicine?

Three categories cover almost everything you will deal with.

• Prescription medicine, prescribed by a GP or another health professional for a specific illness or condition, with its own instructions on dose and timing.
• A medication review, where the prescriber checks how a medicine is working and whether anything needs to change.
• Over-the-counter medicine, the kind you can buy without a prescription, for things like a sore throat, a cough or a headache.

Ask a pharmacist before giving an over-the-counter medicine for the first time. They will tell you what is safe alongside anything else the child is taking.

Do You Need Permission First?

As a foster carer, you do not have automatic parental responsibility.

Whoever does, a parent, or the local authority, has to give you what is called delegated authority: written permission covering exactly what you can do, including giving over-the-counter medicine or basic first aid.

Get this in writing before the child moves in, if you can. If a child arrives in an emergency and there has not been time, ask your supervising social worker to sort it out straight away, and keep a note of what you have given and why in the meantime.

Can a Foster Child Say Yes or No to Their Own Treatment?

Sometimes. It depends on age and understanding, not just a birthday.

Young people aged 16 or 17 are presumed able to decide on their own medical treatment, much like an adult, unless there is a clear reason to think otherwise.

A child under 16 can consent to their own treatment if a doctor judges they understand enough about what it involves. This is called being Gillick competent, after the court case that decided it.

If a child cannot consent for themselves, whoever holds parental responsibility decides, usually alongside you and the child’s social worker. You are not left to work this out on your own. The GP and your supervising social worker will guide you through it.

Where Do You Keep It?

Medicine belongs in a lockable box, kept out of reach of other children in the house.

Keep it in its original packaging, labelled clearly with the child’s name. Most medicines want a cool, dry cupboard. Some need the fridge, in which case a locked box inside the fridge does the job.

Never give a prescribed medicine to a different child, even if the symptoms look the same.

Storage like this usually comes up at your home safety check, alongside things like door locks and fire escape routes.

What If a Child Refuses to Take It?

You cannot force a child to take medicine.

If they refuse and it is not urgent, write down what happened and talk to your supervising social worker and the child’s social worker about what to do next.

If refusing genuinely puts the child at risk (an EpiPen, an inhaler, insulin), talk to your supervising social worker in advance about a plan for exactly this. If you are in that situation right now and there is no plan in place, call 999.

What About School Trips or Time Away?

Plan ahead. If a child is going on a school trip, staying at a friend’s for the night, or off to football camp for a week, someone else may need to give their medicine, or at least know where it is.

A teacher might need an inhaler kept in a desk drawer. A swimming coach might need to know a child carries antihistamines for a wasp sting. Write it down, tell whoever is taking over, and check they are comfortable with it before the child leaves the house.

As children get older, some are ready to carry and manage their own medicine, an inhaler in a coat pocket rather than your bag. Part of your job is helping them get there safely, at their own pace.

What If Something Goes Wrong?

Mistakes happen. If one does, do not try to cover it up. Call 111, the GP or the prescriber straight away for advice, and tell your supervising social worker what happened.

Side effects matter too. Anything beyond the mild, write it down, raise it with the GP, and report it through the Yellow Card scheme, the national system for reporting suspected reactions to medicines.

What Do You Have to Record?

Every fostering service does this slightly differently, so check your handbook. As a rough guide, you will usually note why the medicine was given, its name and dose, how it was given, and any reaction.

This sits alongside the everyday recording foster carers do, and it becomes second nature fast.

You Will Not Be Doing This on Your Own

None of this sits on your shoulders alone.

Your supervising social worker is a phone call away. Fostering Hearts carers get support from someone looking after around six families at a time, not sixty, so that call gets picked up.

You also have a wider network looking after a child’s health alongside you: GPs, health visitors, the child’s social worker.

If you are wondering whether you could manage a child’s medical needs, that is exactly what your training and the support already built around you are there for. You are not expected to know it all before you start.

Frequently asked questions

Can foster carers give a child paracetamol or other over-the-counter medicine?

Yes, once you have delegated authority in writing covering over-the-counter medicine. This should be agreed before, or very soon after, a child moves in with you.

What is delegated authority?

It is written permission from whoever holds parental responsibility, a parent or the local authority, setting out exactly what you can decide day to day, including medicine and basic first aid, without asking each time.

Can a 16 or 17 year old in foster care refuse their own medicine?

They are presumed able to make their own decisions about medical treatment, in the same way an adult is, unless there is a clear reason to think they cannot understand what is involved.

What happens if a foster carer makes a mistake with a child’s medicine?

Get advice straight away from 111, the GP or the prescriber, and tell your supervising social worker what happened. Never try to hide a mistake.

Do foster carers need medical training before they can give a child medicine?

No medical background is required to apply. Fostering Hearts covers what you need to know through training and ongoing support from your supervising social worker.