Fostering News: Care Review Chair Calls for Teachers to Consider Fostering Pupils

Care Review chair Josh MacAlister has set out an argument for one per cent of all teachers to foster a child at their school.

In his recommendations to the government, MacAlister called for the recruitment of 9,000 new foster carers in England over three years.

“Family group decision making processes should identify adults known to the child (e.g. teachers, community workers or the parents of a child’s friend) who might be willing to foster,” the review's final report states.

Following its publication, MacAlister shared a poll by Teacher Tapp on Twitter which shows that almost half of teachers asked said they would temporarily foster a child from their class.​

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​However, of those who said they would, 30 per cent said their decision would “depend on the child”. 

Some 50 per cent of those polled said they would not foster a child from their class.

MacAlister said in a series of tweets accompanying the poll results: “Young people with care experience told me time and again that they wished their teachers would have been asked to care for them.

“Having a teacher or another adult who already knows a child becoming a foster carer might not be possible or right for every child (or the teacher). But going into care can be enormously isolating, can disrupt school life and can fracture relationships.

“If only one per cent of teachers stepped forward to foster a specific child, there would be 4,610 new homes available for children. Surely this is worth a try,” he said.

Teachers, care leavers and sector leaders have shared mixed opinions on the idea on Twitter.

Some called for more clarity around the idea of “temporary” arrangements. 

Richard Barker, emeritus professor of child welfare at Northumbria University, described the poll as “worthless”, writing: “Not least because it doesn’t define temporary – a weekend, a fortnight, a year?”

Lisa Cherry, schools, services and systems consultant, added that MacAlister's call was a “disappointing discourse, for many reasons”.

“Teachers are working 60-hour weeks and children and young people who are 'looked after' need connection on speed. 

“Fostering and teaching perform entirely different functions that cross over as the most important domains in a child's life. This is a lame recruitment strategy,” she said.

One person, who has experience of foster care, added: “Teachers were often the only stable and consistent relationships I had. 

“I wouldn’t have wanted to jeopardise that by it becoming a formal arrangement, and at the risk of the placement breaking down and then being moved on from the one person that I trusted.”

However, one adoptive parent, who works in an alternative provision, said: “I love this. If my boys or their siblings had been able to have been looked after by someone who knew them when they were taken into care, even if it was just for a little while then the huge trauma of being separated from everything they know would have been a little bit easier.”

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk