Inquiry shines light on fostering

Fostering is a huge commitment and foster carers play a crucial role in making a positive contribution to the health, wellbeing and future prospects of the children in their care.

However, the foster care system is in need of urgent attention. There are more children in care than at any point since 1985, too many foster care placements are breaking down, and there are not enough foster carers to provide the right care. There are also concerns about the support available, and the lack of status and respect accorded to foster carers.

Following the launch of our fostering inquiry last autumn, we have received almost 100 submissions of written evidence, with respondents including major fostering and children's charities, local authority and independent foster care providers, individual foster carers and looked-after young people.

We want to examine issues around the recruitment and retention of foster carers, over the role of private sector providers, and about the involvement that young people have in their care. We will be hearing from a range of witnesses over the next few months including foster carers, academics and children's minister Edward Timpson to get a clearer sense of what the Department for Education needs to do to address the problems in the foster care sector.

The first public evidence session of our inquiry is on 1 February. It will hear from foster carers and representatives of organisations such as The Fostering Network and FosterTalk.

Status of foster carers

Many of the main themes of the written evidence will, I suspect, come as little surprise to those working in the foster care sector.

There was near unanimous recognition that working conditions and employment standards for foster carers need to improve, a point made in a wide range of submissions including those from Action for Children and the Association of Directors of Children's Services. However, there were mixed feelings towards the professionalisation or unionisation of foster carers.

Many submissions pointed to a lack of financial and practical support for foster carers, with some, such as from the GMB Union, arguing for professionalisation and greater standardisation of working practices. But several emphasised the vocational aspect of the foster carer role and expressed concern that a focus on greater professionalisation would undermine the values of this approach.

While pay and financial allowances for carers were described as inadequate, several submissions emphasised that financial reward was not, and should not be, the primary motivating factor in recruiting foster carers.

We heard from many carers who said they feel they are still not seen or respected as expert professionals.

Some felt the relationship between foster carers and social workers needed to improve and that poor experiences with overworked, inexperienced and underprepared social workers had turned many carers against the social work profession, seeing social workers more as an unhelpful interference than useful support. Another common sentiment was the feeling that fostering is portrayed as a second-rate option, with adoption the "gold standard".

Independent agencies

The use of independent fostering agencies (IFAs) raised strong feelings, some objecting to profit-making companies being involved in the care of vulnerable children, others arguing that all care should be done by local authorities.

But there was a widespread recognition that IFAs do valuable work, and that problems often stem from a lack of standardisation across the sector and a lack of efficient and effective co-operation between IFA and local authority foster care providers.

Submissions from the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers, Ofsted and others called for the system of commissioning placements to have greater clarity, oversight and regulation. Some evidence claimed that local authorities are "reluctant buyers", placing young people with their own in-house carers first, even if they are not the best fit. Some pointed to an anti-IFA bias or a tendency to "price-led commissioning" based on widely held but misleading views that in-house placements are cheaper than those from agencies.

Matching placements

The importance of the appropriate matching of carers to children was emphasised, given that poor matching leads to more placement breakdowns, worse experiences for children and carers, and more carers leaving the system. Indeed, many respondents, including The Fostering Network, called for a national register of carers, saying this would benefit analysis of capacity, enable better matching of placements and give greater freedom to carers.

Many foster carers wrote to us with serious concerns about the future of the profession. While many were passionate and dedicated about fostering, we heard from several who had recently quit or were looking to do so in the near future.

Interestingly, everyone bar the DfE, which says there is no national shortage, appeared to recognise there was an issue of capacity. As a committee, it is important that in this inquiry we get to grips with what is really going on, examine how effectively the system is working, and bring forward meaningful recommendations to ensure government does all it can to help improve the lives of young people in foster care.

Neil Carmichael is chair of the education select committee

• More on the committee's inquiry at http://tinyurl.com/hhd3mtz