The Home-Finding Team: Matching Children with the Right Foster Families

At the heart of every successful fostering arrangement is careful planning and genuine consideration for each child or young person. At Swiis, this responsibility sits with the dedicated Home Finding Team, who work to ensure children and young people are matched with foster families where they can feel safe, supported, and valued.

In 2025, over 81,000 children and young people were in care across England. Our Home‑Finding Team plays an essential role in helping local authorities find the right fostering households for these children and young people. Thoughtful matching can make a meaningful difference to a child or young person’s wellbeing, stability and long‑term outcomes.

Who Are the Home-Finding Team and What Do They Do?

The Home‑Finding Team acts as a conduit in connecting children and young people with foster families. They work closely with local authorities, foster carers and Swiis teams to ensure every home‑finding arrangement has the best possible chance of success.

As a Tier 1 supplier, Swiis is one of the first fostering organisations that local authorities contact when they are searching for the right home for a child.

Home‑Finding Coordinator is allocated a specific regions of the UK and work closely with local authorities, helping them to establish strong relationships, effective communication and a deep understanding of their local needs. Having dedicated regional knowledge enables the regional Home Finding coordinator to put forward foster carers who are genuinely suitable for the referrals they receive.

When a local authority sends information about a child or young person who needs a home, this is known as a referral. The referral will include key information such as their age, background, education, support requirements and any specific considerations which need to be considered.

Swiis are a trusted fostering partner of the Local Authorities and have long standing relationships with our Local Authority partners, as such Local Authorities trust us in ensuring that we send details of only those carers who could meet the child’s needs.

The team receives thousands of referrals each year, and every single one is reviewed with care. They take the time to fully understand the needs of each child or young person before considering whether a suitable match can be offered.

Where needed, they proactively seek further information from the Local Authority, ensuring they have a complete picture. This thoughtful, thorough approach enables the coordinators to identify carers who are not only available, but genuinely the right fit for the child.

Each referral is considered against a clear set of criteria. The Home Finding team will review a wide range of factors, including the foster carer’s skills, lifestyle, pets, and household dynamics, alongside the child or young person’s education and social needs. Careful consideration is also given to ethnicity, religious requirements, personality, and educational needs of the child, ensuring the best possible compatibility and a stable, well-matched placement.

Nirali, the Home‑Finding Team Manager, explains:

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We thoroughly assess the unique needs of each child or young person and carefully consider the skills and strengths of our available foster carers. If any gaps are identified and we believe the match would be beneficial for the child or young person, our training team will ensure the foster carers receive specific training needed to provide the best possible support.

The Matching and Arrangement Process

From the moment a referral is received, the Home Finding Team will work behind the scenes to find the best possible match, supporting introductions, discussing financial arrangements and attending planning meetings. The team will fully support both the foster carers and the child or young person during the transition of moving into the fostering home.

Once a child or young person is with their foster carer, ongoing support continues through the foster carer’s Supervising Social Worker, the Training Team, the Stability and Support Team and our Foster Carer ‘Buddy’ mentor programme. This joined-up approach ensures foster carers are never on their own and always have an effective support team around them.

For a more detailed look at Home-Finding process, visit our step‑by‑step guide here:

Why Openness Matters in Matching

Matching is never about finding any home. It is about ensuring it is the right home for the child or young person, taking into account the overall household including lifestyle, pets and birth children.

Swiis will only put foster carers forward for arrangements that genuinely match their strengths, experience and household circumstances.

Training, preparation and ongoing support are key through Supervising Social Workers, the Training Team, the Stability and Support Team and the Foster Carer Buddy scheme. This helps our foster carers feel prepared and supported, giving every home‑finding arrangement the best possible chance of success.

Laura, Swiis’ Training Team Manager, explains:

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We support fostering applicants through the assessment process by providing training to prepare them for the fostering task and we provide confidence and resilience building training as soon as they are approved.

Thoughtful matching makes a real difference, as shown by our foster carers’ experiences.

Mobeen’s story, which describes fostering a transgender young person, shows how openness, understanding and the right support can lead to significant positive outcomes:

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Someone being transgender was completely new to us, and there were challenges, but we were willing to learn. Over time, we saw a big change in the young person. When they first came, they were not confident and were very reserved. By the time they turned 18 and moved on to start a new life, they were much more confident and settled and seeing that change was a proud moment.

Karen describes how her initial preferences developed naturally as she gained experience and confidence:

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When I first became a foster carer, I thought the age range I wanted to foster would be between 5–14 years old, and over time this changed naturally… As I experienced how well teenagers fit into my home, my preferred age range gradually expanded.

These stories highlight the importance of thoughtful matching and demonstrate how meaningful a well‑considered arrangement can be.

How We Support Foster Carers Between Arrangements

The Home‑Finding Team maintains close contact with foster carers even when they are not in an active home‑finding arrangement. The team provides regular updates, shares information about referrals, answers questions and ensures foster carers feel informed and involved.

There are also opportunities during this time such as attending additional training or considering short break fostering to gain further experience and continue building skills and confidence.

The Right Home, at the Right Time

At the core of the Home‑Finding Team’s work is a commitment of ensuring that children and young people who are placed with our foster carers, have the opportunity to thrive in a stable, warm and nurturing environment. This is why careful matching, combined with the right support and training, truly matters.

At Swiis, foster carers are never alone on their fostering journey. Our dedicated teams support them before, during and after matching them with the right child or young person, ensuring they feel confident, informed and valued. Our aim is to give every child or young person the opportunity to feel safe, supported and understood.

If you are considering fostering, now is the perfect time to take the first step. Every child or young person deserves a safe, supportive place to call home and you could be part of that journey.

To learn more about how the home-finding process works, download our Information Pack or speak directly with our friendly team. They will guide you through each stage and answer any questions, helping you decide whether fostering is right for you.