In July, the government opened a call for evidence on parental leave and pay in England, Scotland and Wales. They are looking at how to build a fairer system for parents within a family, different types of parents and different employment statuses. We believe this is a key influencing opportunity to ask the Government to introduce 5 days statutory paid leave for foster parents who work alongside their fostering, building on the amendments we put down on this in the Employment Rights Bill in Westminster earlier this year. This would align with requirements set out in our Fostering Friendly Employers Scheme which currently over 200 hundred employers have signed up to.
In our response, we emphasised the vital role foster carers play and highlighted the challenges many face balancing fostering responsibilities with employment and called on the government to give foster carers 5 day paid leave.