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Of the 54 children placed by 11 authorities with foster carers from West Midlands fostering agency Match Foster Care in 2014, none had stayed with the same social worker since entering care, with some having up to four changes annually.
Foster families were frustrated about local authority social workers' lack of time to build trusting relationships with children and about delays in accessing support services or securing permission for holidays and other activities, due to their workloads, paperwork commitments and lack of decision-making autonomy. Match manager Jacqueline Dunster says this was leaving children and young people "powerless to influence their lives, unable to live as normal as possible and hindered from achieving their full potential".
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