FEWER families in Devon have been approved to foster a child, new figures show, as the number of families approved in England saw its biggest decline.

The Fostering Network has warned vulnerable children are at increasing risk of being placed in homes which do not meet their needs, as thousands of households gave up fostering this year, while fewer new ones were approved.

The number of English households which had stopped fostering children as of March was 5,125, while those approved was the lowest in the last five years – 4,080, making it a loss of 1,045 fostering households.

These include foster places in both local authority and independent fostering agencies.

The localised figures are rounded to the nearest five and only show local authority foster carers, which account for 46% of them.

Ofsted figures show some 25 households in Devon had their fostering applications approved in the year to March – fewer than the year before, when there were around 35.

However, 40 carers also chose to stop fostering in Devon during the same period.

The most households deregistered from fostering were in the South East – 425, while 340 stopped in the South West.

The number of households making applications has also been declining in the last two years, with 8,010 submitted in 2022-23 compared to 11,235 in 2020-21.