<P> Foster care in the modern sense was first introduced in the United Kingdom in 1853 when Reverend John Armistead removed children from a workhouse in Cheshire, and placed them with foster families . The local council (called unions at the time) was legally responsible for the children, and paid the foster parents a sum equal to the cost of maintaining the child in the workhouse . </P> <P> According to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service--the agency for England and Wales set up to safeguard and promote the welfare of children involved in family court proceedings--the total number of new care applications between April 2011 and March 2012 was up by 10.8 per cent, rising from 9,202 over the same period the previous year, exceeding the 2008 - 09 tally of 6,488 by 57.2 per cent . </P>

When did foster care start in the uk