Investment in foster care is essential to ensure that more foster homes are available for children who need them, according to the Fostering Network. The warning comes after the release of new figures showing a further rise in children coming into care in England and an increase in the number living with foster carers.

The statistics show that foster families continue to look after the vast majority of children in care away from home, and that reliance on fostering is still increasing.

However, there has been little improvement in stability over the past five years – the percentage of children having two (22%) or three or more (11%) placements during the year has remained virtually unchanged since 2007.

There were 65,520 children in care in England on 31st March 2011, an increase of 2% on the same date in 2010 and a rise of 9% since 2007. Of these, 48,530 lived with foster families, up by 4% from 2010 and a huge 15% from 2007. This now represents 74% of children in care and 79% of children in care away from home (61,550).