LONDON: A new report from leading think tank Equi is warning that a crucial factor in the conversation around child welfare in the UK is being systematically overlooked: the role of faith.
The UK’s care system is facing a deepening crisis, with over 107,000 children currently in care and the number of available foster carers and adopters falling sharply.
In a landmark publication titled “Faith, Family and the Care System: A Missed Connection?”, Equi has argued that while ethnicity and culture are often factored into decisions about care placements, faith continues to be neglected, with damaging consequences for children’s emotional stability and sense of identity.
Drawing on polling conducted in partnership with Savanta, as well as interviews and case studies from across the UK, the report set out the urgent need for faith-literate reform of the child welfare system.
“Faith isn’t just a personal belief for many children, it’s a source of identity, resilience and stability. Our care system needs to reflect that,” said Prof. Javed Khan, one of the leading voices behind the report.
The research highlighted the experiences of British Muslim communities, showing that faith can play a powerful role in supporting vulnerable children, both by helping to prevent family breakdown and by fostering strong networks of informal and kinship-based care.
Despite making up 10 percent of under-18s in England, Muslim children account for less than 5 percent of those in care. It is a disparity Equi said reflected both strong community-based care and the challenges Muslim families face in engaging with the formal care system.
According to the findings, British Muslims are 66 percent more likely than the general public to provide informal care or financial support to children at risk of entering care.
Over 5,500 Muslim heritage children are currently in formal kinship care arrangements, with thousands more supported informally, a contribution estimated to save the state more than £220 million ($298 million) each year.
This strong culture of kinship care, rooted in Islamic teachings around the responsibility to care for orphaned children (“yateem”), is seen by the report authors as an underappreciated asset within the national care framework.
However, Equi said British Muslims who want to contribute more formally to the care system face significant barriers.
While members of the community are 63 percent more likely than the general population to consider fostering or adoption, nearly 60 percent report fears of discrimination.
Many point to cultural misunderstandings, bias in assessment processes and a lack of faith-sensitive placements as major deterrents.
Faith is also closely tied to children’s sense of self and well-being, the report argues.
More than 70 percent of British Muslims — and 40 percent of the wider public — said faith played a key role in shaping their identity during childhood.
Yet current government policy fails to take religious background into account during care placements, following the removal of faith matching guidance in 2014.
Equi links this omission to increased identity conflict, emotional distress and instability in care arrangements.
Young people from faith backgrounds leaving care are also highlighted as being especially vulnerable to isolation. The report calls for faith-based mentoring schemes and transitional housing to support care leavers as they navigate adulthood and reconnect with their communities.
In response to the findings, Equi called on the government to embed faith literacy throughout the care system.
Among its recommendations are recording children’s faith heritage in care records, incorporating religious identity into placement decisions, offering culturally sensitive therapeutic care, and working in partnership with faith-based charities to recruit and support carers.
The report also urges local authorities to expand fostering capacity, particularly for sibling groups and multigenerational households, and to ensure clear legal and financial guidance is provided to kinship carers.
“This report isn’t just about British Muslims, it’s about the 40 percent of children for whom faith is part of who they are,” said Khan.
“It’s not about bringing faith into policymaking in an ideological sense. But, rather, it’s a wake-up call that ignoring faith ignores people’s lived realities. It harms vulnerable children’s sense of belonging and increases instability in care placements. The system must become more inclusive, fair and ultimately more effective.”
With rising pressure on the UK’s care system and a shrinking pool of carers, Equi’s report presented a timely and compelling case for unlocking underused community resources and building a more resilient, culturally competent and cost-effective model of care, it said.
