Fostering a Child From a Different Cultural Background

A lot of people hesitate before picking up the phone because of one quiet worry: what if a child is placed with me whose background is nothing like mine? What if I get their hair wrong, or have no idea what to cook? It is one of the most common things raised on a first call to us. Here is what the law asks of you, what the work actually looks like, and where the help comes from.

Please note: General information, not advice about a particular child, correct at August 2026. Statutory duties come from the Children Act 1989 and the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010. The hair and skin sections describe everyday care, not medical advice; a health concern goes to the child’s GP.

How often does this actually come up?

Often enough to be worth being straight about. At 31 March 2025 there were 81,770 children looked after in England, and 54,820 of them were living with foster carers. Of all children in care, 71% were recorded as White, 11% as Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups, 8% as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British, 5% as Asian or Asian British and 4% as another ethnic group. Roughly one child in four comes from a minority ethnic background, and in London that sits inside boroughs where dozens of languages are spoken on one school roll. The question is not whether this applies to you, but when.

Local authorities look for a carer who shares a child’s background where they can, and often they cannot. Our honest position: a child waiting in an unfamiliar emergency placement while a perfect match is searched for is not well served. What matters more is whether the adult in front of them is willing to be taught.

What the law asks of you

None of this is left to good intentions. A child’s identity is written into the paperwork that arrives with them, and you can ask for it to be filled in properly if it is thin. Three provisions are worth knowing by name.

• Children Act 1989, section 22(5)(c). Before making any decision about a looked-after child, the local authority must give due consideration to “the child’s religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background”.
• The care plan and the placement plan. Under the 2010 Regulations, the care plan must cover the child’s identity “with particular regard to” those same things, and the placement plan must set out their personal history, religious persuasion, cultural and linguistic background and racial origin. That is what should tell you what you need on day one.
• Equality Act 2010, section 9. Race is a protected characteristic covering colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins. Discrimination against a child in your care on that basis is unlawful, at school and everywhere else.

One note on wording. The government dropped “BAME” in March 2022, because grouping very different communities together hides what happens inside each. Use the child’s own description of themselves.

Ask everything before the child arrives

Many new carers avoid asking, in case the question sounds ignorant. It is the wrong instinct. Nobody expects you to know which branch of Islam a family belongs to, and asking at referral beats guessing for six weeks. Our guide to preparing before a child arrives covers the setup. This is the list to add to it.

• The exact religion, including denomination or sect where that matters.
• Food: what is not eaten, what happens during a fast, whether meat must be halal or kosher, and where the nearest shop is. Shopping together for the right rice does more for a new placement than any conversation about heritage will.
• Prayer: whether space and time are needed at home, which place of worship they attend, and who takes them.
• Festivals in the next twelve months, and what usually happens on them.
• The language spoken at home, the child’s hair type, and where it has been styled before.
• What the birth parents have agreed about hair, clothing and religious observance.

Hair and skin, where good carers most often slip up

This is where well-meaning placements quietly go wrong, because the products in most bathroom cabinets are the wrong ones. A child whose hair is not cared for properly knows it, and other people notice. Start from the hair type rather than the background. Professionals grade it from 1 for straight to 4 for tightly coiled, and knowing where a child sits tells you what to buy.

• Coily and Afro-textured hair is usually drier and does not need frequent washing. Warm water rather than hot, towel drying rather than a hairdryer.
• Conditioner and oils on the ends. Detangle while wet, with fingers or a wide-toothed comb.
• A satin bonnet at night, or a silk pillowcase, protects the style and reduces breakage.
• Protective styles such as braids stay in for weeks and can be washed in place.
• Find a barber or salon that works with that hair type, ideally the one the family already used.

Before you cut or chemically straighten anything, check the care plan and your supervising social worker. A haircut can look trivial to you and mean a great deal to a birth parent. It belongs in the conversation about family time and contact with a child’s birth family.

Skin needs the same attention. Dry or ashy skin responds to a decent moisturiser and shorter, cooler showers. The NHS advises at least SPF 30 with a four-star UVA rating from March to October, and people with brown and black skin can still get skin cancer, so sunscreen is not optional. Rashes also look different on darker skin, so if you are searching online to decide whether something needs a GP appointment, look for images on skin like your child’s.

Racism will come up, and “just ignore it” is not an answer

A child of a different ethnicity to yours is likely to meet prejudice, and you cannot prevent that. What you can do is make sure they never carry it alone. Deflecting lines like “I’m sure she didn’t mean it” teach a child that telling you is pointless. Name it, believe them, act.

• Read the school’s policies on racism and bullying before you need them. Our article on how foster carers support children at school covers the wider school relationship, including the Personal Education Plan.
• Report incidents to the school in writing, and tell both social workers the same day.
• Rehearse the ordinary questions so they do not knock a child sideways. “Why are you a different colour to your mum?” is answered easily with “not all families look the same”.
• Teach the child their rights and who to tell. One who knows a teacher must act will speak up sooner.

Celebrating where a child comes from

Then there is the more enjoyable half: making sure a child sees their background as something good rather than something that marks them out. Look honestly around your living room. Are there books where the main character looks like the child living with you? Representation sounds abstract until a seven-year-old goes quiet over a picture book because the girl in it has her hair.

• Mark the festivals properly, with decorations and food, not in passing.
• Learn a few words of the child’s home language, badly and out loud. Children find adults failing at this funny, which is its own kind of bonding.
• Find groups or faith communities where the child sees adults like them.

You won’t have to do this alone

Nobody is approved for already knowing how to care for a 4c curl pattern or when Diwali falls. You are approved on whether you can learn and keep a child safe while you do. Every GLF household has a supervising social worker who visits regularly and is on the phone in between, we run training through the year including on caring for a child of a different ethnicity, and someone is available out of hours. Ofsted inspected us in July 2025 and rated us Outstanding in all three judgements. The point underneath runs through all fostering, and through understanding trauma and attachment: a child who feels seen settles better.

The money is straightforward too. GLF pays £479.50 a week for a child under 11 and £507.50 for a child aged 11 or over, per child, while a child is placed with you, with an enhanced fee of roughly £100 to £200 a week more for higher-needs placements. One weekly payment covers the child’s costs and your reward, so there is no separate pot to apply to when a child needs a specialist barber. The detail is in how foster carer pay works, and the wider criteria are on our page about becoming a foster carer.

If the reason you have not enquired is that you were worried about getting this wrong, that worry is a good sign. The carers who cause harm here are not the ones asking the question. They are the ones who never thought to.

Frequently asked questions

Can I foster a child of a different religion to my own?

Yes. You are not asked to share a child’s faith, you are asked to make it possible for them to practise it: space and time for prayer at home, getting them to a place of worship, following rules about food and clothing, and marking the festivals their family marks. Your supervising social worker helps with the detail.

Do I need to speak the child’s first language?

No, and most carers do not. Schools support children learning English, and free classes are often available locally. A handful of words for greetings and food goes a long way at first, and translation apps handle the rest. What matters is that their first language is treated as worth keeping.

Who decides whether a foster child’s hair can be cut?

Not you, on your own. Check the care plan and your supervising social worker, because the birth parents’ agreement is often needed before hair is cut, straightened or restyled. Hair carries real meaning in many families and faiths, and a decision that feels routine to you can be serious to a parent. Ask first.

Will I only be matched with children from my own background?

No. Local authorities do try to match a child’s ethnicity, religion and language where a suitable carer is available, and often one is not. We will tell you honestly what a child needs before you say yes, and will not push you into something you do not feel ready for. If you want extra training first, we will arrange it.