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The Westminster Government has issued a call for evidence for its stocktake of foster care in England.
The stocktake, announced last year, is seeking to understand what currently works well and why, where improvements are needed to achieve better outcomes for fostered children and identify areas where more research is needed.
Following the publication of the Children Commissioner for England’s Stability Index, Melissa Green, director of operations at The Fostering Network, said: ’We welcome this report as it sheds further light on one of the major issues affecting children in care today.
Written, produced and directed by the young champions, the film aims to tackle the stigma surrounding children in care. They presented the film at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 30 March at a reception hosted by Liam McArthur MSP. The audience included foster carers and their families, fostering services, and a number of other MSPs and ministers.
The Fostering Network has teamed up with the BBC to produce a new campaign calling for more foster carers. Narrated by care leaver Hollie, the short film shows how foster care can transform the lives of children and young people. Joseph, also a care leaver, is featured in the film. Now studying for his Masters, he is a shining example of how the right foster carers can change a young person’s life. He told us his story in this blog.
On Wednesday 22 March, The Fostering Network bid a fond farewell to our president, Jim Bond. After celebrating more than a decade in the role he is now passing the baton on to Libby Thornhill who was recently appointed as his replacement.
Responding to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) report, No Good Options, which brings together information gathered through their inquiry, Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: 'We welcome the publication of this report for which we submitted written and oral evidence based on the results of a UK-wide survey of foster carers on the impact of funding cuts to local authority budgets.
The Fostering Network is delighted to have been successful in securing further funding for the next phase of the pioneering Mockingbird programme.
An additional £3.76m has been allocated from the Department for Education’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme to work with new partners as well as testing additional innovations to the model.
An innovative project to encourage and support more Muslims to become foster carers was launched last night at a charity gala dinner.
The event raised funds for the new Muslim Fostering Project and was hosted by the Better Community Business Network (BCBN), a Muslim-led organisation that identifies and supports worthwhile community projects. The Muslim Fostering Project will be established and run by the UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network, and the prominent community development charity, Mercy Mission UK.
Figures released today by Cardiff University, using data from the School Health Research Network survey in Wales, suggest that young people in foster care in Wales have higher rates of weekly smoking, binge drinking, recent cannabis use, and poorer life satisfaction, compared to children living with their parents or other family members.
A study by seven British universities has revealed significant inequalities in child welfare across the UK, with children in the poorest areas at least 10 times more likely than those in the most affluent to become involved in the child protection system.
