Time to stop the neglect of long-term foster care

The government’s single-minded resolve to drive up adoption numbers is swallowing much energy, resources and national attention, as are the inquiries into children’s home scandals. In the Children and Families Bill, now at committee stage, fostering is mentioned only in the context of the “fostering to adopt” scheme.

Fostering will, however, continue to be the most suitable option for many children who cannot live with their birth families. With the population of looked-after children continuing to rise, carers continue to be in short supply. A consultation paper on long-term foster care is expected in the spring, which will hopefully see a shift out of the current policy inertia. In our special report, we examine the key themes that children’s minister Edward Timpson – who was brought up with 80 fostered children – has pledged to address in a nationwide letter to carers. On recruitment, there is no silver bullet. A national campaign – which does not appear forthcoming – would help bolster local initiatives to attract good carers, such as Staffordshire’s eye-catching drive to recruit “resilience foster carers” with professional experience of working with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

But the big piece of the jigsaw that appears to be missing from Timpson’s radar is the wellbeing of young people when they leave foster care at 18. Huge savings through better educational and social outcomes would be achieved if the concept of care were extended to the age of 25. The “Staying Put” pilots some years ago, which allowed young people to remain with their carers into early adulthood, showed positive results. Such ongoing stability should be supported so that young people are not forced unconditionally into independent living at 18 and all the personal and societal costs this often brings. In a similar vein, charities are calling for the duty to provide “virtual school heads” for looked-after young people to be available up to 25. The problem is that those parts of the system that make these investments would not yield the actual savings.

Above all though, it is time to stop neglecting foster carers. They must be empowered to allow those with the toughest beginnings to lead fulfilling lives.

Removing youth policy from DfE may be sound
We revealed in our last edition that youth policy might shift from Michael Gove’s education department to the Department for Communities and Local Government. Last week, Gove confirmed to young people on the “national scrutiny group” that this was indeed under consideration. On the one hand, this would lead to the fragmentation of national policy making for children and young people. On the other hand, that is the situation we are in anyway, as the Department for Education continues to park youth policy in the holding bay, while schools reform continues at a hurtling pace. Philosophically, it is a retrograde step. Practically, it might not be such a bad thing.

ravi.chandiramani@markallengroup.com