Helping a Child Stay at Their Own School and in Their Own Community

A child coming into care has usually lost a lot in a very short space of time. The bedroom, the routine, sometimes the whole street. If they can keep the same classroom, the same teacher who already knows how they like to be spoken to, and the same Saturday football club, then something in their life carried on as normal. That matters more than it sounds, and you have more say in it than most people expect.

Please note: this is general information about the law and guidance in England, not advice about a particular child. Rules and figures are correct at September 2026. The duty to keep a child near home and avoid disrupting their education sits at section 22C of the Children Act 1989. Always check the current position with the child’s social worker and your supervising social worker.

What a school place is actually holding together

When social workers talk about school stability they usually reach for attainment data. Grades are part of it. But what a school really holds for a child in care is more ordinary than that: the friend who saves them a seat, and the teaching assistant who knows they go quiet when they are hungry. A child who moves home and school in the same week rebuilds all of that from scratch while also working out where the toilets are. Our guide to how foster carers support a child at school covers what an ordinary school week involves.

It happens a lot. Of the 81,770 children in care in England at 31 March 2025, 44 per cent were living outside their own local authority’s boundary and 22 per cent were living 20 miles or more from home. Those are the Department for Education’s own figures. Behind every percentage point is a child who changed schools because there was nowhere nearby for them to live.

A child is rarely moved miles away because anyone thinks it is good for them. It happens because no approved foster carer was available close enough. Which is exactly why we recruit right across London rather than in a handful of boroughs.

The law is more on your side than you think

Local authorities are not free to place a child wherever there happens to be a bed. Section 22C(8) of the Children Act 1989 says that, so far as is reasonably practicable, where a child is asked to live must let them stay near their own home, must not disrupt their education or training, and must keep brothers and sisters together where the authority is accommodating both. Section 22C(9) goes further and says the child should be accommodated within the local authority’s own area unless that is not reasonably practicable.

There is a stronger protection for older children. Under regulation 10 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, if a child is a registered pupil in the fourth key stage (Years 10 and 11) and a proposed change of home would disrupt their education, that decision cannot go ahead until a nominated officer has approved it. Before signing it off, the officer has to be satisfied that the new education arrangements will work, that they fit the child’s personal education plan, and that both the designated teacher and the independent reviewing officer have been consulted. In plain terms: nobody should be quietly moving a Year 11 across London the term before their GCSEs.

You are allowed to say all of this out loud in a meeting. Politely, and with a note of the date you said it.

The school place itself: what you can ask for

The admissions rules give children in care unusually strong rights, and they are worth knowing before you need them. There is more on the paperwork in our piece on what you can actually ask a school for.

• Paragraph 1.7 of the School Admissions Code 2021 requires admission authorities to give the highest priority to children in care and to children who were previously in care. Top of the list, above siblings, above distance.
• Under paragraph 2.16, a child in care can be admitted outside the normal admissions round even where that takes an infant class over the usual limit.
• Paragraphs 3.26 to 3.28 let the local authority direct a maintained school to admit a child in its care even when the school is full. The school has to say within seven days whether it is willing to take the child.
• Every maintained school and academy must have a designated teacher for children in care. Ask who it is in your first week. They are the person who can quietly sort out a uniform, a locker or a seating plan.
• The personal education plan should be started within 10 working days of a child coming into care and reviewed every school term. It is the document where “she needs to stay at this school” gets written down and funded.
• Pupil Premium Plus for 2026 to 2027 is 2,690 pounds per child in care. It goes to the local authority, and the virtual school head decides how much reaches the school and what it pays for. Extra tutoring, a laptop, a taxi: all of these have been paid for out of it.

None of that works by itself. It works when somebody asks. Usually that somebody is you.

The school run, honestly

This is the part that actually decides whether a child keeps their school, and the glossy leaflets rarely mention it. If a child moves in with you in Croydon and their school is in Lewisham, someone has to do that trip twice a day in London traffic.

Free home-to-school travel under the statutory rules is fairly narrow. A child under eight qualifies if their nearest suitable school is more than two miles from home; for a child of eight or over it is three miles. Children in care are not a separate category in those rules. In practice, when keeping a child at their existing school means a longer trip, the cost is usually picked up through the care plan or the virtual school rather than through the transport rules, and it has to be agreed rather than assumed. Ask about it at the very first meeting, before anyone has decided the trip is impossible.

Be realistic with yourself, too. An hour of driving a day is an hour of driving a day. Some carers find the car is where the best conversations happen; others find it grinding by November. Say which one you are before you commit, because a carer who quietly resents the run is no good to anybody.

Community is not only school

School is the obvious anchor. It is not the only one. A child might have a cousin two streets away, a barber who has cut their hair since they were four, a Sunday congregation where people know their mum, or a swimming club with their name on a trophy. These things cost very little to keep going and they do an enormous amount of work.

Some practical ways to protect them:

• Ask, early, what the child does on a normal Saturday. Then keep doing it.
• Get delegated authority sorted so you can say yes to a sleepover or a school trip without a three-week wait. Your supervising social worker can push this along.
• Keep family time predictable and local where the plan allows it. Familiar surroundings make those visits easier for everybody.
• Pay the club subscription and buy the kit. Ask about the cost afterwards.
• Let them use the same GP and dentist if it is workable. Fewer new adults asking personal questions is a gift.

None of this needs a qualification. It needs you to treat the child’s existing life as real and worth defending, rather than as a set of arrangements to be tidied up.

When the move has to happen anyway

Sometimes it does. A child may need to move away from a group that is exploiting them, or away from an address that is not safe, or to a specialist school that can meet their needs properly. In those cases the honest answer is that staying local would harm them, and a good social worker will say so plainly.

If a move is unavoidable, the statutory guidance expects a new school place within 20 school days where a child has come into care in an emergency. Push for a proper handover: the old school’s designated teacher talking to the new school’s designated teacher, not a file in an envelope. And let the child keep something. A phone number, or a last day with a real goodbye. Helping a child through a move is its own skill.

You won’t have to do this alone

Arguing for a child’s school place in a room full of professionals is not something anybody does naturally the first time. At GLF you would not be doing it by yourself. Your supervising social worker knows the admissions rules and the virtual school teams across the London boroughs we cover, and will come with you when it matters. We keep our carers close to the children they look after on purpose, because it is the simplest way there is to protect a school place.

Our fostering fee is 479.50 pounds a week for a child under 11 and 507.50 pounds a week for a child aged 11 or over, paid per child while a child is living with you, with an enhanced fee of roughly 100 to 200 pounds a week more where the child’s needs are higher. One fixed weekly amount, no separate claims for birthdays. Ofsted inspected us from 21 to 25 July 2025 and rated us Outstanding in all three judgements.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foster child stay at their old school after moving in with me?

Often, yes. The local authority has a duty under section 22C(8) of the Children Act 1989 to avoid disrupting a child’s education so far as is reasonably practicable, and children in care get the highest priority in school admissions. The practical question is usually travel rather than the school place itself, so raise it at the first meeting and ask how the trip will be funded.

Who pays for getting a child to school?

Free travel under the statutory rules only applies if the nearest suitable school is more than two miles away for a child under eight, or three miles for a child of eight or over. Where a longer trip keeps a child at their existing school, the cost is usually met through the care plan or by the virtual school. Agree it in writing before the first term starts.

What is a personal education plan and do I go to it?

It is the plan setting out what a child in care needs at school and who is doing what about it. It should be started within 10 working days of the child coming into care and reviewed each term. Yes, you go, and your view carries real weight because you are the person who sees the homework and the bad mornings.

Can I stop a school move I disagree with?

You cannot veto it, but you can make it much harder to do casually. For a child in Year 10 or 11, a move that disrupts their education needs sign-off from a senior officer who must first consult the designated teacher and the independent reviewing officer. Put your objection in writing, ask for it to be recorded, and tell your supervising social worker the same day.