Communications

Too often, due to a lack of foster carers, children are placed with foster families away from their local communities, and sibling groups are separated, the UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network, warns.

This issue is highlighted during Foster Care FortnightTM (9-22 May), the charity’s annual awareness raising campaign, as they call for more people to come forward to foster, to ensure that children in need of a foster home can be cared for locally.

A report launched today by The Fostering Network shows the urgent need to improve practice around allegation investigations in foster care, as the impact of poor support and lengthy procedures causes foster families high levels of stress, many consider leaving the workforce, and children and young people who need foster care suffer as a result. 

The Fostering Network is delighted to welcome Jacqueline Cassidy as its new director for practice and Scotland. 

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the UK government have launched a scheme for families to put themselves forward to welcome Ukrainian families into their homes.

The Fostering Network and CoramBAAF are receiving enquiries asking for advice. The key principles for The Fostering Network and CoramBAAF are as follows:

The Adoption and Children Bill was passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday with full cross-party support. We warmly welcome the passing of the Adoption and Children Bill which represents a huge step forward for children’s social care, as the first piece of legislation focussed on the fostering system since the 1995 Children Order.   

Today the Department of Health in Northern Ireland announced additional funding of almost £1 million to support foster carers and supported lodging hosts.

The funding package aims to help foster carers to continue the vital work they are doing, by providing additional funding of £25 per week for each child or young person being looked after between January 2022 and March 2022.

The Fostering Network is calling on all fostering services in the UK to implement a foster carers’ charter, as its latest report on the status of foster carers highlights that foster carers are not treated with the respect and value their vital role warrants, and not given the support they need to help children thrive.

• New training course, developed by Internet Matters, The Fostering Network and Dr Simon P Hammond from UEA, has been created for foster carers to help keep children in their care safe online
• Research shows that children in care are more at risk of encountering harms online than their peers, with three in 10 receiving threatening messages online
• Training will educate foster carers on how they can support children’s safety and digital resilience online
• Foster carers can now access the training through trainer-led virtual sessions led by The Fostering Networ