What Does It Take to Become a Foster Carer? (Your Radical Questions with Louise Allen)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Louise Allen answers your questions about the rewards and challenges of being a foster carer.
She also discusses reports that a new government strategy will back a scheme that helps foster carers expand their properties to give more young people a home.
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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Jonny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello and welcome to your radical questions. This is where I put your questions to one of our |
| 0:10.8 | brilliant radical guests. It's basically a chance to really, really engage directly with |
| 0:15.8 | them. They are always super smart, super interesting, super radical, and we want you to have the chance to really connect |
| 0:22.2 | with them. I have just finished a very, very, very moving, powerful, important and enlightening |
| 0:28.7 | conversation about foster care with the author and the foster care at Louise Allen. She's also |
| 0:33.6 | stuck around to answer some of your questions, which is very generous given the demands on your time, Louise, and the fact that you've come in all the way from Bristol to be here. Are you good to answer some questions? Yeah, go for it. You're feeling radical? Yeah, always. Here we go. This is our first question. It's from a friend of the today program. It's the founder, one of the founders, of messy fostering. Amy Burns, |
| 0:55.8 | here she is. Hello. My question for Louise is how has your time and care shaped the way |
| 1:00.6 | you fostered today? And in your experience, what are the most challenging and the most rewarding |
| 1:05.2 | aspects of being a foster carer? Oh, that's a good question, isn't it? Most challenging and most |
| 1:10.3 | rewarding. Yeah, okay. |
| 1:12.0 | Well, my own experience of growing up in the care system directly informs the work I do. |
| 1:19.2 | Mostly by me taking a breath before I do anything, I think that the times are different. |
| 1:26.1 | But what I remember and what is important is that |
| 1:29.8 | we are working with children who are trying to make sense of their world that come from |
| 1:35.1 | different cultures and different households. |
| 1:37.7 | And my biggest, I think, biggest gift to myself when I'm working in them is just to go slow. |
| 1:46.5 | Go slow. |
| 1:47.4 | Learn your child and not take anything personally. |
| 1:52.1 | That's that one. |
| 1:53.0 | What would you say? |
| 1:53.7 | She said, what are the biggest challenges? |
... |
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