Care News: Trauma experts call for end to profit making in foster care

Private sector fostering agencies are being called on to “transition to not-for-profit operation” by a group of trauma experts.

The Centre of Excellence in Child Trauma wants to see all fostering agencies “prioritising child welfare over financial gain”.

Instead, it wants to see profit redirected into “quality care and comprehensive support for foster children and their families”.

But the Centre, which is an umbrella organisation for child trauma experts, warns agencies against cutting back on pay and conditions for children’s professionals involved in fostering and carers, as they transition away from profit making.

It says that “social workers, therapists, foster carers and staff should be properly rewarded for the intense and difficult work they do. This includes proper pensions, health care and future proof savings to assist young adults as they exit the care system”.

The Centre’s chief executive Sarah Naish said: “This is not about cutting payments for those working so hard with our most complex and vulnerable children. It’s about reducing the glut of overpayments from those who merely desire it, back towards those who need it.

“In this way, local authorities will be able to afford quality homes and spaces in which our children will thrive.” 

More than four in five independent fostering agencies in England are profit making.

Meanwhile, in Wales 79 per cent of children cared for by private fostering agencies are fostered outside of their local area, with six per cent moved out of Wales entirely.

The Welsh government is putting in place plans to ensure only not-for-profit residential and foster care can be commissioned in Wales. By 2027 for-profit fostering organisations will not be permitted to operate in Wales through the measures.  

This stance in Wales is a “pivotal moment” for the rest of the UK, says the Centre.

"The heart of fostering is neither commercial nor transactional. It's about providing spaces of healing and growth for some of our society's most vulnerable members,” added Naish.

“Redirecting the focus from profit to people is not just necessary; it's ethically non-negotiable.”

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk

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