6 in 10 foster carers have to contribute to cost of looking after fostered children

The Fostering Network publishes State of the Nation's Foster Care 2016

The Fostering Network has published State of the Nation's Foster Care 2016 which collates the surveyed views of foster carers. The survey is conducted every two years in order to find out what key issues need to be addressed.
Three-quarters of looked after children in the UK are cared for by foster families which, The Fostering Network says, means that improving the outcomes for children in care must start with improving foster care.

The survey of 2,530 UK foster carers, conducted from July to September 2016, found that:

Only 42 per cent of foster carers felt their allowance covered the full cost of looking after fostered children. This means that more than half of all foster carers are having to dip into their own pockets to cover the cost of looking after the child.
Only a quarter of foster carers described respite support as excellent or good.
31 per cent of foster carers reported that they were rarely or never given all of the information about a fostered child prior to placement.
Almost a third of foster carers had been referred children from outside their defined approval range.
Just under half of foster carers did not have an agreed training plan for the next year.
A third of foster carers felt that children's social workers did not treat them as an equal member of the team.

The report recommends that:

A learning and development framework for foster carers should be implemented in all four countries of the UK, covering accredited and standardised pre- and post-approval training.
The governments of the UK should each create a register (a centrally held list) of approved foster carers to improve safeguarding, increase portability of the workforce, create a standardised pre- and post-approval training framework and improve the status of foster carers.
National governments should revisit the minimum level of fostering allowances and the Scottish Government must introduce minimum recommended allowances.
Foster carers should always be given all the available information they need about a child.
Responsible authorities should adhere to existing regulations that a placement cannot be ended unless a case review has been held.
Local authorities must conduct local needs analysis of their population of looked after children in order to determine the types of care placements required and to inform recruitment and commissioning.

On 1st February 2017 the House of Commons Education Committee held its first public evidence session as part of its inquiry into fostering in England. It heard from foster carers and representatives of organisations including The Fostering Network and Become. For details of the inquiry, click here.

To read the The Fostering Network's full report, click here.

3/2/17 (supplemented 3/2/17)

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