How inclusive and representative is research on foster caring in the UK? Findings from a scoping review

The importance of inclusivity and representation is increasingly recognised in fostering services and within research to ensure that services are meeting the needs of all the diverse communities they aim to support. However, the extent to which research with foster carers is inclusive in its participant recruitment is not clear. A scoping review was conducted to explore the characteristics of foster carers who take part in research, how these characteristics are reported and the methods used by researchers to promote inclusivity and diversity in their recruitment. Across the 82 journal articles included, the review found substantial variation in how studies report the characteristics of participants, and some characteristics such as disability and religion are absent across the literature. Notwithstanding the inconsistencies in reporting, the review found that some communities of carers are underrepresented within research compared with national levels, including kinship foster carers and non-White carers. There is also a lack of discussion about inclusivity and participant representation within research papers, indicating that although there is broader recognition of the need for inclusive and representative research in health and social care, there is substantial room for improvement within research with foster carers. In fostering services and in research, being inclusive and making sure that carers of all kinds are fully represented is important. This is to make sure that services can support all communities in a way that meets their unique needs and experiences. However, currently, it is not clear how inclusive research with foster carers is. This paper is a review of published studies which gives a broad overview of the characteristics of foster carers who take part in research, how these characteristics are reported and how researchers talk about their efforts to be inclusive when recruiting participants to their studies. Eighty-two journal articles were included in the review. There was lots of variation in how the studies reported the characteristics of participants, and some characteristics such as disability and religion were very rarely mentioned. Even with this variation in reporting, overall, there are some communities of carers who are underrepresented within research, compared with national levels. These include kinship foster carers and non-White carers. The literature reviewed generally had very little discussion about how to increase inclusivity or representation of the people who got involved in research about fostering. This suggests that while inclusive and representative research is seen as important, there is lots of room for improvement within research with foster carers.