On 29th November TACT Head office in South London was visited by childcare professional from Russia conducting a study tour. The group, coordinated by Kluch Foundation, consisted of specialists working in the orphanages and NGOs working in the sphere of child protection and family placement. The goal of their study visit was to learn about child participation system in the UK and how children are involved in a monitoring and evaluation process. TACT’s Children Resource Workers presented the benefits and strengths of including young people in decision making and participation in the running of the organisation providing many examples such as DVD made by young people about the journey in care and Big Weekend DVD filmed and edited by young people to promote TACT. In addition, policy interns presented what their department does to involve young people. Source: https://www.tactcare.org.uk A survey of more than 200 foster carers for the charity TACT, to be published in the new year, found that 75% saw fostering as a vocation and a lifestyle choice, not a career or a job.
I chair the Fairer Fostering Partnership. All of our members, who are charities or not-for-profit organisations, have clear values and a family-based approach to fostering. None of our agencies take dividends or profits – and all income is reinvested in our foster families, unlike some of the large independent agencies, which pay dividends running into millions of pounds every year to directors and investors. Providing care in your own home is more profound than employment. Fostering offers the opportunity for a child or young person to experience family life. It is transformative and vocational for carers and the children. Foster carers are sharing one of society’s most fundamental and personal experiences. Current debates on “workers’ rights” for foster carers focus disproportionately on adults’ rights rather than children’s. Proponents argue that foster carers deserve holiday pay and protection under whistleblowing procedures. At Tact and other not-for-profit fostering agencies, foster carers already have many of these, although with some agencies and local authorities they do not. Tact believes that all foster carers should have these supports and protections but do not need employment or “worker” status to receive them. Fostering agencies must develop back-up care so children have support when their foster parents are unavailable, as happens in all families across the UK. Foster carers should not be financially penalised for occasionally using back-up carers; indeed, we would ask the government’s fostering stocktake to recommend that fees are made available to both the main and back-up carers when the main carers are away or seriously ill, which in our experience is not a regular occurrence. Other demands for the nascent Foster Carers Union for sick pay and access to employment tribunals are more problematic. Parents do not receive sick pay when they are ill and still have to look after their children. However, foster carers, like other self-employed people, do suffer when they are too ill to work – and we would welcome some attention on how this might be addressed. Employment tribunals are for employed staff. Foster carers have access to complaints procedures and an independent panel that oversees and considers disputes between carers and their agency. Family life is not built around contracts and codified processes; it is built around care, stability, consistency and love. Employment contracts would pose a significant threat to this. Foster parents have a choice in which children they offer a home; this vital principle and safeguard must not be eroded. Those who pressure and cajole foster parents to accept placements are not acting in the best interests of children. We need to treasure the unique resource our wonderful foster carers provide and celebrate and respect those who open their homes, hearts and families to others. It is vital that this respect is demonstrated through how the professional networks around children in care interact and take their lead from the foster family. Full and consistent delegated authority needs to be given to foster carers so that decisions about the child’s life are made in the family home. Far too often, local authorities do not give full delegated authority to foster parents, so children are in the unnatural position where their social worker, not their parent, have to give permission for school trips, sleepovers and the like. Fees and allowances need to be fair and reflect the cost of bringing up children. No one ever gets rich, or even mildly affluent, through fostering. However, we must meet the costs of bringing up children, especially as their needs mean many foster parents must be at home full-time. Regular training and 24/7 support are vital as our foster carers can find themselves dealing with some challenging situations. These generally arise outside office hours, as they do in all families. In too many local authorities, training is not sufficiently robust – and out-of-hours support is delegated to generic emergency duty teams, who have neither the time nor expertise to support foster parents properly. Above all, foster parents are the experts on their child. They know more about them than anyone else in the professional network: more than the social worker, GP, teacher or Cafcass guardian; more than anyone outside the birth family. Yet they are seldom heard from directly in court proceedings and often excluded from key meetings. This must stop; the state cares for children through foster parents, it is they – not politicians or social workers – who bring up the children. The system must work through foster parents, not around them. Andy Elvin is chief executive of Tact and chairs the Fairer Fostering Partnership. Source: www.theguardian.com/social-care-network Fostering through Social Enterprise (FtSE), a consortium of 12 charitable and not-for-profit independent fostering providers, has changed its name to The Fairer Fostering Partnership (also known as Fairer Fostering). The group, which covers the whole of the UK, and includes Action for Children, Barnardos and TACT, provides foster care for over 2000 children. Working in partnership with children’s services and dedicated foster carers, Fairer Fostering members put children before profit by re-investing back into the care of children and young people. Andy Elvin, the Fairer Fostering chair, said: “All our members’ resources are invested in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and young people and not in making a profit from them. This transparency and accountability is welcomed by local authorities and foster carers alike. We wanted our name to reflect this.” As a representative voice of not-for-profit providers, Fairer Fostering campaigns to increase awareness of the scale of profits distributed to shareholders and investors. Many commercial fostering agencies are owned by private and venture capital companies and significant profits are made by these companies. Fairer Fostering asks commissioners to understand who they award contracts to and where taxpayers’ money goes. It could be the difference between investing in children or adding to shareholder profit. Each Fairer Fostering member has its own unique and distinctive approach to fostering. All offer a variety of able, experienced and trained carers, and staff, plus a service package tailored to the best possible outcomes for each individual child or young person. Members’ services augment those of hard-pressed health and local authority provision. The Fairer Fostering Partnership believes that where a surplus is made, it should be re-invested into children’s services; and that excessive shareholder profit has no place in the care of vulnerable children. Source: https://www.tactcare.org.uk St Christopher’s has joined with The Fostering Network and other fostering agencies to ask the government to change their new childcare policy, which excludes foster carers from accessing up to 30 hours a week of free childcare. As part of this Chief Executive Ron Giddens attended a roundtable event at the House of Commons chaired by Tracy Brabin MP, the Shadow Minister for Early Years. The event was attended by foster carers and representatives of the voluntary childcare sector and focused on how the policy could be amended to be more inclusive of fostering households. There was an overwhelming consensus that the decision to exclude foster carers from the additional free childcare for three to four year olds is discriminatory and unjustified. All children in England are eligible for 570 free hours of childcare per year once they are three years old. This is often broken down into 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year. Some people are eligible for up to 30 hours a week free childcare, or 1140 hours per year. The number of hours you qualify for is dependent on your earnings and work status. However, foster carers are excluded from accessing the additional free hours, regardless of their income. Earlier in November St Christopher’s signed a letter from The Fostering Network to national newspapers explaining to the government why this is unfair. The letter explains: “Children aged three and four across England are now entitled to an extra 15 hours of free childcare each week, with the exception of fostered children who have been explicitly and inexplicably excluded. We are calling on the children’s minister, Robert Goodwill, to urge him to reverse this discriminatory decision with immediate effect. Fostered children must have access to the same opportunities as other children.” Ron said: “We immensely value the contributions that foster carers make and know that many children’s lives would not be the same without their carers’ love and support. “St Christopher’s continues to campaign and pressure to get this change so that foster carers all over England can have the same support as other parents and caregivers.” Source: https://www.stchris.org.uk Fostering through Social Enterprise (FtSE), a group of 12 charitable and not-for-profit independent fostering providers, has changed its name to The Fairer Fostering Partnership (also known as Fairer Fostering).
The group, which covers the whole of the UK, and includes Action for Children, Barnardos and TACT, provides foster care for over 2000 children. Working in partnership with children’s services and dedicated foster carers, Fairer Fostering members put children before profit by re-investing back into the care of children and young people. Andy Elvin, the Fairer Fostering chair, said: “All our members’ resources are invested in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and young people and not in making a profit from them. This transparency and accountability is welcomed by local authorities and foster carers alike. We wanted our name to reflect this.” As a representative voice of not-for-profit providers, Fairer Fostering campaigns to increase awareness of the scale of profits distributed to shareholders and investors. Many commercial fostering agencies are owned by private and venture capital companies and significant profits are made by these companies. Fairer Fostering asks commissioners to understand who they award contracts to and where taxpayers’ money goes. It could be the difference between investing in children or adding to shareholder profit. Each Fairer Fostering member has its own unique and distinctive approach to fostering. All offer a variety of able, experienced and trained carers, and staff, plus a service package tailored to the best possible outcomes for each individual child or young person. Members’ services augment those of hard-pressed health and local authority provision. The Fairer Fostering Partnership believes that where a surplus is made, it should be re-invested into children’s services; and that excessive shareholder profit has no place in the care of vulnerable children. ENDS Contact details Andy Elvin, TACT - Chair of Fairer Fostering Tel No. 0208 695 8142 | Email a.elvin@tactcare.org.uk Ian Brazier, The Foster Care Co-operative - Deputy Chair of Fairer Fostering Tel No. 01684 892380 | Email ian@fostercarecooperative.co.uk Information for Editors The Fostering through Social Enterprise consortium, now The Fairer Fostering Partnership, was set up in 2007 to represent the views, perspectives and experience of a number of charitable and not-for-profit independent fostering providers. The current Fairer Fostering members are:
Fairer Fostering’s core aims are:
Fairer Fostering members:
Working in partnership with Norfolk & Cambridgeshire CC's A new approach to how young people leaving the care system are supported is being launched this week. Staying Close, Staying Connected is a partnership between Break, a Norfolk children’s charity, Norfolk County Council and Cambridgeshire County Council and the aim is to change the way young care leavers are supported, by putting a framework around them as they leave residential care that will dramatically transform their outcomes. The project will be officially unveiled at the Charles Burrell Centre on Friday 24 November. A grant of 1.3 million has been awarded to Break from the Children’s Social Care Innovation Fund which aims to develop more effective ways of supporting vulnerable children, especifically those leaving Children’s Homes. The funding will pay for a pilot project in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire to test out effective ways to support children leaving care over the next two and a half years. The project will focus on young people from Cambridgeshire and Norfolk but it is hoped that it will become nationally recognised as best practice in residential care leaver support. Robert Goodwill, the Children’s Minister, has pledged that the Staying Close scheme will mean “care leavers will no longer have to face life’s milestones alone – be it applying for university, getting a job or finding their first home”. In essence it should mirror how a parent might support a young person leaving home, being agile and flexible around what they need and when. Rachel Cowdry, Director of Business Development at Break says “This is a really exciting opportunity for us to work in partnership with Norfolk County Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to support some of the most vulnerable young people in our counties. Break has already been supporting our own care leavers for five years through our Moving On Team. The Department for Education grant will enable us to develop this project to benefit many more vulnerable young people. We hope that this project will have positive repercussions for care leavers in our region and beyond”. The need to support young people who have lived in care has been evident for many years. These young adults are much more likely, than their peers, to struggle in all aspects of their lives such as finding and sustaining work, physical and mental health, and building positive relationships. Sir Martin Narey, the former Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, conducted an independent review of children’s residential care in England, published in July 2016. This report stated the importance for the young people to “Stay Close” to their children’s home and the trusted relationships they had with the staff after they had to leave. The Break project will test out different ways to support these young people including “Staying Close” and will provide new training for staff working in residential care homes, more accommodation for care leavers with intensive support, including focusing on their emotional wellbeing, so that care leavers can acquire the skills and resilience they need to live independent, successful lives. To find out more about the project, click here for the brochure. Source: http://break-charity.org Almost 20% of sibling groups taken into care were split up because of a difficulty in finding suitable placements, a report has said. The Care Inspectorate report said more high quality fostering and adoption places were needed. Almost 60% of local authorities had difficulties placing sibling groups. An independent care review is under way to make recommendations to improve the quality of life and outcomes of young people in care. The report said overall the quality of fostering and adoption services across Scotland was high, with 95% of fostering services and 97% of adoption services rated as good or better by inspectors. But it said more foster families were needed to support children in care, with 78% of councils reporting instances where the number of children requiring a foster care placement was greater than the placements available. In particular it suggested experiences for sibling groups taken into care need be improved, with 211 sibling groups (20%) split up on finding a placement. Karen Reid, chief executive of the inspectorate, said it worked closely with local authorities and independent organisations which provide adoption and fostering services. 'Strong bond' She said: "From our inspections we know that the vast majority of these services perform very well. By highlighting good practice and identifying areas which can improve, we help ensure that all children can get the best possible start in life. "We also know that more high quality fostering and adoption places are needed for vulnerable children, and that too many children are separated from their siblings when a place is found for them. "It is important that children in care are supported to form permanent and loving relationships as quickly as possible, and an important part of this is almost always maintaining the strong bond between siblings. "Sisters and brothers are often a great support and comfort at times of crisis, especially for young children." Fiona Steel, operational director of children's services at Action for Children Scotland (ACS), said: "One of the main concerns highlighted in this report is the difficulty in recruiting foster families to look after sibling groups. "This was an area we highlighted in our recent report on children in the care system and is due to issues as varied as lack of appropriate accommodation through to the impact on their birth children. "Caring for, reuniting and reconnecting siblings highlights the advanced skills and resilience that is required by carers to support siblings, who have experienced significant trauma, to remain together. "The trauma that siblings have shared, and their communication of it, occurs in many different ways and can have profound and long-lasting impact on carers and their family." Transformational The independent review, which began its work in May 2017, is looking at legislation, practices, culture and ethos of the care system across Scotland. The government said it will make recommendations to improve both the quality of life and outcomes of young people in care. When it was established, its chairwoman, Fiona Duncan, said it would deliver a review which changed lives and was transformational. The review team includes charities and a number of individuals experienced in care. Ms Duncan said: "Without the voice of care experience, this review would not be happening - and without that voice, it will not deliver. "Many young people, their families, and professionals involved in the care system have an important contribution to make, and I look forward to learning from them in the coming weeks and months." The Care Inspectorate report publishes for the first time figures compiled in December 2016 and shows Scotland has 59 registered foster care services, of which 32 are run by local authorities and 27 by independent services. There were 4,011 approved foster carer households and a total of 5,435 children in a foster care placement, of which 28% were permanent placements. There were 209 children in foster care at the end of December 2016 who were waiting for a permanent placement. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk Break has been changing young lives for 50 years, making life better for vulnerable children, young people and families. As our 50th anniversary approaches, we will continue to work tirelessly to help young people in care and leaving care, children with disabilities, families who need support and children in crisis, find a way through difficult times and build a brighter future. We would like to thank you for all the amazing things you have done this year to support Break. Please help us make our 50th year a really special one and help us to keep on changing young lives. Foster families in Wolverhampton who can commit to homing sibling groups are set to receive more financial help from the city council. Officials say brothers and sisters placed in foster care are more likely to be split up and have now introduced measures that will allow carers to apply for extra financial help, in some circumstances. People interested in fostering are invited to drop-in sessions across the city over the next few weeks. Councillor Val Gibson, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: "We are very lucky to have so many dedicated foster carers who combine a desire to help children with a commitment to providing the best possible care. But we have more sibling groups who are looking for a foster home. Keeping siblings together provides them with the best possible future given their relationships with each other, the support they may provide one another and their shared experiences. These new measures are just one of the ways we are supporting our foster carers and we hope that more will take up this support and open their home and hearts to a family that needs them. " – COUNCILLOR VAL GIBSON. The council say there are dozens of children waiting for a home, and the Fostering for Wolverhampton team are now keen to hear from individuals and couples who want foster a local child or children. Officials say foster carers can be sole carers, married or in a relationship -and they 'won't be on their own as help and support is always available.' Carers receive six months' "buddy support" from other more experienced foster carers to guide them through the system. Placements can be anything from a few days to a number of years and carers receive a regular, tax exempt fee and allowance to cover the cost of bringing up the child. People who are interested in becoming foster carers are invited to meet the Fostering for Wolverhampton Recruitment Team at one of its drop-in sessions, taking place over the next few weeks. They will be taking place at:
People can also find out more about becoming a foster carer by visiting www.cityofwolverhamptoncouncil.gov.uk/fostering, by calling 01902 551133 or searching for 'Fostering for Wolves' on Facebook. Source: http://www.itv.com A stark report by the UK’s largest children’s charity, Barnardo’s, reveals the extent of the challenges facing the growing number of children in foster care in England. An analysis of referrals made by English local authorities to Barnardo’s fostering services last year graphically illustrates the struggles of children and young people needing foster care, many of whom have suffered shocking neglect and physical or sexual abuse. Of the referrals that were analysed in detail, 16 per cent of the children had been sexually abused, exploited or groomed, 17 per cent were asylum-seekers or had been trafficked and 6 per cent indicated that children had engaged in harmful sexual behaviour. Many of the children showed the signs of trauma due to past abuse and neglect, including witnessing domestic violence, and understandably had challenging behaviour. 8% of children were referred for a foster care placement more than once during the year. In the light of these findings, Barnardo’s is calling on Government to prioritise reforms which will make care work much more effective for children and young people with the most complex needs. Ahead of the National Fostering Stocktake, which will review fostering in England, the report urges the Department for Education to prioritise reforms that will make foster care work for children and young people with the highest needs. These could include re-designing the foster care system to improve matching, support specialist placements, facilitating access to specialist help and improving access to tailored mental health support. The report also urges local authorities to budget for the additional cost to support children with higher needs. It also calls on them to plan for a wide range of foster carers, to give children more chance of finding a good match with a carer. Barnardo’s Chief Executive, Javed Khan, said: "This report on foster referrals makes bleak reading. Sadly it highlights the often traumatic experiences of children who need our foster placements. We know first-hand from the tireless work of Barnardo’s foster carers that children in care, even those who have experienced the most shocking abuse, can recover with the right help. But we need to see local authorities prioritising support for these children from day one, with specialist foster care placements and therapeutic support. And through its National Fostering Stocktake, the Government must make sure that it puts the most vulnerable children at the front and centre of future foster care reforms." Bev Stoakes, from Coventry, has been providing specialist foster care for Barnardo’s for almost nine years. Bev said: "Many of them have had horrendous experiences. You just have to be there for them – supporting, listening and not judging. I try to be myself and to treat them like they’re a member of my own family, throwing birthday parties and Christmas dinners which are also attended by my grown-up children and their own families. For some of them it’s the first time that they feel someone has really listened to them and cared for them, and then they start to really open up about what their life has been like so far. It can be heart-breaking." Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: "Councils are committed to providing a care system that works for all vulnerable children, no matter what their individual needs or circumstances may be. Any child in care, including those with high needs, must be able to access the specialist support they need, when they need it. Children’s services face a £2 billion funding gap by 2020. If nothing is done to address this, crucial services that many children and families across the country desperately rely on will be at risk. Councils are calling on the Government to use the Autumn Budget to commit to fully funding children’s services so that all children and young people, including those with particularly challenging needs, are able to get the support and protection they need." The report also warns there is often a lack of information about the children needing a foster care placement, so finding a good match with an available carer can be difficult and slow. Of our sample of 1,482 children referred to Barnardo’s in 2016, there was only sufficient information about why the children had come into care, what their needs were and what kind of foster carers they would require for just 630 children (43 per cent). Barnardo’s helps find foster homes for children who are considered “harder to place”, including older children, sibling groups, children with physical and or learning disabilities and those who have been trafficked or sexually exploited. Key highlights from the report: -Sexual abuse, exploitation or grooming was documented in 16 per cent of the referrals that were analysed in detail. -Six per cent of cases that were analysed involved children who had been engaged in harmful sexual behaviour. -Seventeen per cent of referrals that were analysed were for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. -12 per cent of referrals described children showing extreme anger behaviours. Ten per cent of the referrals were for babies and their mothers. -8 per cent of the children referred in the year had been referred for a foster placement at least once before, due to no placement being found the first time, a placement breaking down, or a child returning home and coming back into care. Source: http://www.barnardos.org.uk |
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