Establishing the psychological reasons for what draws certain people toward fostering children and keeps others away is an important task, given that recruiting the right foster carers with the right characteristics, is imperative for the optimal development and wellbeing of those children who are placed into care. This research explores psychological motivations established during in-depth interviews with UK foster carers, and formulates a model, which may provide a theoretical building block for the means of assessing future foster carers, in terms of who are likely to be successful, and who are not.