When foster carers Emma and Anthony opened their home to children in 2017, they came face-to-face with a truth that many carers know all too well — when children move between placements or caseworkers, pieces of their story can be lost.
Photos, drawings, school reports, certificates, and the little treasures that make up a childhood are easily scattered or gone altogether.
For children in care, positive memories are far more than happy moments — they are the building blocks of identity and emotional stability. Each photo, video, story, or message is proof of belonging and love, helping children feel seen and valued even when life changes around them.
These memories strengthen emotional regulation, foster resilience, and create continuity between past and present – helping to give children a strong sense of identity and self-worth. Without them, children risk losing the thread of who they are and how their experiences connect. Preserving those moments helps them build a grounded, enduring sense of self — which has been shown to have positive impacts on educational, social, behavioural, cultural and future parenting outcomes.
Out of that realisation came CaringLife: a secure, digital life story platform designed by carers, and children and young people in care. It gives every young person a private, lifelong space to store and share the photos, videos, documents, journals and reflections that tell their story — safely and in one place that travels with them wherever they go.
A Collaboration Built on Care and Connection
Today, CaringLife and The Fostering Network are working together to ensure every child in care across the UK can preserve their story — safely, securely, and with dignity.
Through this collaboration, foster carers, family, significant people, social workers, and residential teams will be supported with tools and training that make life story work simpler and more meaningful.
CaringLife is already being used by dozens of local authorities and service providers across the UK, helping to create a greater sense of stability and trust for children and young people in care. Each digital life story book helps maintain continuity — ensuring that important memories, achievements, and moments of care are never lost through change.
Together, we’re helping to make sure that every moment, every milestone, and every memory remains part of a child’s story.
Why It Matters
Life story work is at the heart of helping children and young people understand who they are. But it takes collaboration and care to make sure those stories are protected through every transition.
Digital life story books don’t replace the heart of that work — they safeguard it. By bringing carers, families, and professionals together in one secure digital space, CaringLife helps every child in care build a consistent, connected record of their life.
As one carer shared:
“When my foster child moved placements, everything came with them — their photos, their drawings, their memories. It meant their story didn’t have to start again.”
Every Child Deserves to Keep Their Story
This collaboration between CaringLife and The Fostering Network represents a shared commitment: that no child in care should ever lose the story of their life.
If your fostering service, local authority, or residential unit would like to learn more about how CaringLife can support your life story work, visit www.caringlife.com or contact hello@caringlife.com
Because every child deserves to look back and see their story — whole, remembered, and truly their own.
