For UK fostering agencies, councils and regional hubs
Fostora is the fostering system with Kin, an assistant built into the record. Kin drafts supervision notes, reviews and letters from what's already been logged. Carers log their day on their phone. Every statutory clock is counted for you, and you pay per household, not per login.
What Fostora fixes
Most fostering systems were built to store records. Fostora is built to take work off the people who write them.
Recording overload
Supervision notes, reviews and letters are written from scratch, from logs and visits already in the system.
Fostora: Kin drafts them from the record, shows its sources, and a worker checks and signs off.
Carer retention
Logs on paper or a clunky portal, slow replies and pay nobody can explain push good carers away.
Fostora: a phone app with a two-minute guided log, messages, requests and a clear pay breakdown.
Missed deadlines
DBS renewals, visits, 72-hour return interviews and the 16-week connected persons limit slip through.
Fostora: every clock is counted and flagged before it's due, on each person's Today page.
Rationed access
Paying £100 or more a month per concurrent licence means agencies ration who can log in.
Fostora: priced per fostering household, with staff seats included in every plan.
Placement breakdowns
Shortlists are built by hand and the reasons are rarely written down for the placing authority.
Fostora: hard rules first, then a fit score with the reasons written out, ready to share.
Inspection stress
Pulling audit trails, returns and records together takes days of someone's time.
Fostora: time-limited, read-only inspector access, a full audit trail and the Ofsted return built in.
Time saved
Move the sliders to match your service. The figures are estimates from the assumptions shown, not a guarantee. In a pilot we agree a time-saving target with you and measure it together.
Also assumed: 30 minutes a week saved per worker on finding what needs attention (Kin's "what needs me today" and the Today page).
Estimated time back for your team
20 hrs
a week across the team, about 3.4 hours per social worker
Visits assume 2.5 hours each including travel. For context, councils piloting AI recording tools have reported around 3.7 hours a week saved per worker3. Your results will depend on how your team works.
Meet Kin
Kin is an assistant inside the record, not a separate AI tool bolted on. It answers from the cases each person is allowed to see, drafts the documents they would otherwise write from scratch, and prepares jobs for them to confirm.
Included on every plan, with a fair-use allowance
Carers come first
Carers who feel supported stay. Fostora gives them a phone app that's quick at the end of a long day, and gives their social worker the log the same minute.
About 2 minutes for a daily log, and nothing typed twice
Matching
Hard rules come first: capacity, approval range, siblings and risks. Every carer who passes gets a fit score with the reasons written out, ready to share with the placing authority.
Minutes, not hours, to a shortlist with written reasons
Safety is never a paid extra
Safeguarding, statutory checks, record keeping and data export are always switched on, on every plan, and are never switched off for a late payment.
Light and dark
Fostora's Glass look comes in light and dark, and each person keeps their own choice. Drag across the screen to compare. These are real screens from Fostora's fictional demo agency.
DarkLight
Their caseload, visits due, logs to read and supervisions, with Kin to draft the write-ups.
The whole agency at a glance: flags, overdue checks, applicants, payments and invoices.
Referrals, matching, vacancies and placements from start to end, including respite.
Their children, daily logs, requests, messages and pay, on their phone.
How Fostora compares
How Fostora sets itself apart from the kinds of system UK fostering services use today.4
| Fostora | Per-licence agency systems | Council case systems | Single-purpose tools | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI in the record | Included. Kin answers from your records and drafts reports and letters with their sources. | Not offered in the product information we reviewed. | Bought separately, as an AI note-taking tool beside the case system. | AI note-takers exist, but don't hold the fostering record. |
| Carer experience | Phone-first. Guided four-step log, requests, messages and pay breakdown. | Usually a web portal for logs and documents. | Limited or no carer access. | Messaging or recruitment only. |
| Matching | Explained. Hard rules, then a fit score with written reasons. | Search or shortlist; reasons written by hand. | Search or shortlist. | Not covered. |
| Safeguarding and statutory | Always on at every price, never off for late payment. | Included, sometimes as add-on modules. | Included. | Not covered. |
| Pricing | Per household. Staff seats included: 10, 50 or unlimited. | Per concurrent licence, around £100–£110 a month each on published listings. | Large multi-year contracts for the whole of children's services. | Per user or per contract, on top of your main system. |
| 2026 reforms | Ready. Panel switchable per service; regional hubs and cooperatives are a built-in customer type. | Depends on the vendor's next release. | Depends on the vendor's next release. | Recruitment tools cover part of the hub journey. |
| Vacancies to referrals | Joined up. A council's enquiry becomes a referral and goes straight into matching. | Vacancy search portals that stop at the enquiry. | Not covered. | Not covered. |
| Switching | Free set-up and help importing your records from a spreadsheet. | Often free set-up. | Long implementation projects. | Varies. |
Pricing
Guide prices a month on annual billing, excluding VAT. Free set-up and help importing your records on every plan.
Small agencies, up to 25 households
£349a month, flat
Add carer payments, invoicing, connected persons, drafting or advanced reports from £40–£60 a month each. More Kin questions: £2 per household a month.
Growing agencies
£14per household a month, minimum £595
Single sign-on available for £150 a month.
Councils, regional hubs and agency groups
By contractabout £10–£12 per household, from £1,500 a month
On every plan, always: placements, approvals, household records, delegated authority, allegations, missing from care, visits, annual reviews, the audit trail, the Ofsted return and SSDA903, full data export, inspector access and draft approval. No plan, unpaid bill or switch turns them off.
Compare a per-licence system with Fostora's guide price for your size of service.
Fostora Professional
£595
a month on Fostora, against £1,575 on per-licence pricing
Guide prices excluding VAT. Your quote depends on the plan and add-ons you choose.
Built for children's data
Each request is checked for role, caseload or placement, and agency. Each customer's data is kept apart from every other customer's.
Kin runs on Claude through Amazon Bedrock. Your records are never used to train it, and every draft needs a person's approval.
Live customer data is held on Amazon Web Services in London, and you can export all of it whenever you want.
No public sign-up. Staff are invited by their manager, with two-step sign-in, and leavers lose access the moment they're removed.
Founding pilots now booking
We'll walk you through it with sample records, agree a time-saving target, then set up a pilot around your service's real workflow.
contact@fostora.co.uk
Notes