'Significant cultural change needed' to recruit disabled foster carers

Fears foster children could end up caring for their disabled foster parent leads interview panels to "too readily question the ability of disabled people to care for children", researchers from the University of Worcester and disabled people’s organisation Shaping Our Lives, have said.

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Fostering agencies are also “doing little to encourage disabled people to apply to foster”, a report into the research found.

In addition, the scale of the barriers preventing disabled people from becoming foster carers is not known by Ofsted. The regulator only collects data on the age and ethnicity of carers but does not monitor when they have a disability, says the research.

Disabled people face additional barriers, the research found, including a lack of access to buildings, IT systems and support, that can be addressed often “at little or no cost”, says the report.

The research, carried over the last two years, includes the views of disabled people, fostering agencies and foster carers.

One disabled foster parent said she was “not accepted initially by a private agency”. She added that “you just feel like you’re pushed aside” and “you’ve got something wrong.”

The research found that many disabled people have “significant skills” to be foster carers, who could help meet a long-standing recruitment crisis in the sector. It is estimated that an extra 85,000 foster carers are needed to meet demand.

Skills disabled people bring to fostering include “empathy, understanding and awareness of disability and discrimination, overcoming adversity and resilience”, found the research.

One disabled foster carer, Alison, recounted to researchers how she had been turned down by several foster care agencies before being accepted by a council, where she has used her own experiences to support children.

“I now have a child who was considered very difficult to place, and was about to be placed out of the area due to extreme behaviours and her own special needs,” said Alison.

“She has now been with me over two years – is placed with me permanently, and is doing fantastically well. She has turned around her behaviours, she is settled in school, she is doing well out of school with her interests and hobbies - and it has just really worked for both of us.”

“Recruitment to foster care has been at crisis point for some time,” said Dr Peter Unwin, principal lecturer of social work at the University of Worcester.

“The huge pool of disabled people in England could make a significant difference to closing that gap, if only they are given the opportunity. Yet disabled people appear to be largely absent from the fostering workforce and the foster parents we interviewed reported initial difficulty during the recruitment process.”

The research was funded by research programme Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL).

“Fostering can provide many rewards and a sense of purpose for disabled people,” said Sue Bott, DRILL programme manager.

“It’s disappointing that this research reveals the sector needs significant cultural change if disabled people are to be given genuine equality of opportunity in this field of work.

“Social workers and the organisations they work for need to educate themselves about disability, legislation, benefits and the support available for disabled workers through schemes such as Access to Work.”