Safeguards for children in care in England are being yanked away in the middle of a pandemic
Tag: fostering
Foster care is faced with a ‘looming crisis’ | Society | The Guardian
Foster care in Britain is facing a “looming crisis” because of lack of government funding and support, leaving carers feeling demoralised, overworked and struggling to cope with the complex needs of the vulnerable children they look after, experts have warned.
The Fostering Network, the charity representing foster carers, has accused the government of neglecting foster care, predicting that young people will not get the support they need if carers continue to be underpaid, ignored and undervalued.
The charity’s State of the Nation’s Foster Care report, seen exclusively by the Observer, reveals that almost half of carers would not recommend fostering to others, and almost two-thirds feel the allowance and expenses they can claim do not meet the full costs of looking after children. Four out of 10 foster carers are not paid any fee, and fewer than one in 10 are paid at or above the equivalent of the national living wage for a 40-hour week.
Source: Foster care is faced with a ‘looming crisis’ | Society | The Guardian
#Brittius says this is a classic example of ‘ biting off the hand that fed him ‘ No list of weapons cache or where the came from: Low blast, despite casualties, and from my own experience, blasts, rely on pressure (Copper Units of Pressure) to do the work #AceNewsDesk reports
As far as I can see this appears to be escaping from a conflict to find refuge in the UK, while then re-engaging the conflict they were escaping from to cause the same within the UK.
It may make sense to someone, but not me. Then I am not aware of any circumstantial circumstances, that is if there are any. But then that should not excuse the actions.
Sally Donovan: adoption services should work with, not against, parents to learn from ‘near misses’
By working openly with adoptive parents, social workers can better learn from placement problems
Source: Sally Donovan: adoption services should work with, not against, parents to learn from ‘near misses’
When it comes to adoption reform – are good intentions enough ?
Original post from Community Care
‘………….By Amanda Boorman
Adoptive parent and founder of charity, The Open Nest, Amanda Boorman says too much focus is placed on recruitment, not support of adopters
The general consensus, according to the popular press, is that the current Conservative adoption reforms are well intentioned. Michael Gove and Edward Timpson, with personal experience of adoption and fostering, have been the good guys. With consistent rhetoric of zero tolerance towards child neglect and a healthy Department for Education budget to back it up, the reform messages are ones that place adoption as the golden permanence option for children unable to live with their first families.
Good intentions
Good intentions can however, if not informed of the bigger picture, become just intentions. Intention to put the rights of children first, to provide opportunity, to share the many positives of adoption, to save money, to ultimately provide a win-win situation.
As the reform rolls out I become increasingly uncomfortable about where the good intentions will land those of us living in the world of adoption and those stepping into the journey as recent recruits.
I adopted 16 years ago. My intentions to become a parent by adoption were to make a loving commitment, to help a child waiting for a family. It was a somewhat naive decision to parent a child I didn’t “own” based upon reading of the plight of thousands of children “languishing” in care. I responded to an advert. It nudged me as adverts are intended to do.
Completely unprepared
Despite being a qualified social worker, I was completely unprepared for what unfolded into my life through adoption. Effected by dismal parenting skills, followed by systemic failure to support her birth family properly, my daughter was firmly rooted in what is now labelled as trauma based behaviour. Without exaggeration we stepped onto a rollercoaster that didn’t stop lurching up and down at high speed for over a decade, culminating in a devastating teenage derailment when my runaway daughter was severely harmed.
Within this process I was not a passive bystander. I fought constantly to gain the right support. I faced blank faces, brick walls, blame, shame and financial difficulty. By the time my daughter was 18, we hated social workers.
As a vulnerable adult my daughter now has good support and is catching up on the development she should have been enabled to achieve as a child. Our joint experience has led to us founding an independent peer support charity, The Open Nest.
Focus on recruitment
We began forming as Martin Narey’s report on adoption was published in The Times newspaper. The same newspaper I had written an article for several years earlier. An article from an adoptive parents perspective, urging Tony Blair to get adoption reform right. To become trauma aware, to train and supervise social workers properly, to fully understand adoptees and to support therapeutic interventions for all involved.
When we saw the recent reform intentions, read professor of social work at the University of Bristol, Julie Selwyn’s research that recorded the struggles adoptees face and heard the talk of support, we felt hopeful that finally there was very real potential for change. Other families would not have to face the intense challenges we had. On closer inspection however, the priority of current reform seems firmly based in recruitment.
Millions has been awarded to local authorities to improve their marketing and promotion of adoption. An increase in the speed and numbers of adoptions taking place is expected in return and a funded framework of centralising services away from local authorities is waiting in the wings for those authorities who fail.
Private and voluntary adoption and support organisations have been grouped together via Department for Education funding and an implied compliance via places on reform boards, to streamline the marketing of adoption as the premium permanence solution, as well as develop adoption support products.
As an outsider it’s tricky to trace the money, but in the language of approximates there has been around £250 million put into reform. Only £19.5 million of this into the adoption support fund, and for one year only.
Lack of support
Regular calls to our charity as well as research within the adoption community, show that all is not well. Social workers and teachers have not been given the advanced training needed to understand the complexities of adoption support, appropriate assessments for complex needs have not improved in many areas, adoptees’ rights to quality life story and family contact management are not promoted, there is no mention of specialist support for transracial adoptees.
The varied voices of adult adoptees seem to have been left out of the reform process altogether. There is no independent adult adoptee on any of the expert boards driving the changes. An opportunity to deliver transformative and long lasting responses to adoption support has potentially been missed by excluding those it affects the most.
I don’t hate social workers anymore. Seeing policy around adoption reform rolled I out feel concerned that they may be scapegoated, again, as the ones that “let the side down”.
Related articles:
Councils will be forced to merge adoption services under new law
Original post from Community Care
‘……………..by
Local authorities could soon be forced to merge their adoption services, under government powers set to be unveiled in the Queen’s Speech today.
The new law, contained in the proposed schools and adoption bill, will oblige councils to combine their services to increase and speed up adoption rates.
Councils will have two years to join together services under their own steam, after which ministers will have the power to force ‘failing’ authorities to take action.
Too small and localised
Although no barriers prevent councils from working together, ministers believe adoption is currently happening, “at too small and localised a scale”, with evidence showing councils tend to concentrate their efforts locally when looking for adopters.
By working together, ministers hope the choice of potential matches for a child will increase significantly and permanent families will be found sooner.
Children’s minister Edward Timpson said: “By coming together and joining forces, councils can make sure more children are matched with families far quicker – regardless of where they live.”
‘Greatest step change in a generation’
Local authorities will be encouraged to identify their own regional approach that would see them merge their adoption services under one system, or outsource delivery of their adoption functions into a single regional agency.
The Department for Education (DfE) confirmed the government will provide financial and practical support for local authorities and adoption agencies to help them bring their services together regionally.
Doing so would implement the, “greatest step change in the way children are matched for adoption in a generation”, the DfE stated.
More from Community Care
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Councils trying to break up foster placements due to cost, carers claim
‘LGBT foster carers are very useful – we know what it’s like to be different but equal’
Placement orders fall by half in nine months, government figures show
Social Work Scotland: A new integrated voice for Scottish social work ………….’
Half of local authorities report increase in care applications
Original post from Community Care
‘……….by
Latest Cafcass figures show 53% of local authorities recorded an increase in the number of care applications in 2014/15
More than half of local authorities are reporting greater demand for care applications, Cafcass figures have shown.
Of 152 local authorities, 80 (53%), had an increase in the number of care applications per 10,000 children in 2014/15 when compared to the previous year.
In the remaining authorities, 43% saw a decrease in care applications year-on-year.
These figures come a month after care demand in 2014/15 was revealed to have hit an all-time high.
Anthony Douglas, Cafcass chief executive, said that how local authorities are better understanding the families they are working with is more important than the increase and decrease in figures.
“Local authorities are trialling innovative new ways of working to provide earlier forms of intervention, demonstrating the high priority being given to child protection, nationally and locally, within the wider context of increasing demand and the need to use budgets effectively to meet these challenges,” Douglas said.
Monthly demand
Care demand in April rose 18% compared to the same period last year, figures released on the same day revealed.
Alison O’Sullivan, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said local authority partner agencies are now better trained at identifying need.
“Though local authorities have experienced significant budget reductions over the last five years we remain active in protecting a growing number of children and young people as these latest figures show,” said O’Sullivan.
Social workers should consider why a family owns a dog
Original post from Community Care
An extract ‘…………
Picture credit: Terry Harris/Rex Features
It’s been reported that social workers are rejecting some foster parents and adopters because they have possibly dangerous dogs.
There are indeed concerns that some breeds are a risk to children – everyone knows the ones – but it doesn’t mean they are all killers, although we do know some breeds of dog are thought to be more likely to bite.
Our family had a dog before we went into fostering. We’d chosen a female Golden Retriever because we knew that gave us the best chance of getting a dog who would be kind around our children. …………………’
NEWS FLASH : BREAKING NEWS
Labour may change Immigration Policy
Ed Miliband has announced that the previous Labour Government got it wrong with their policy on immigration, which could result in a change of future Labour immigration policy.
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Social Services have stated ‘ Due to Ed Miliband’s immigration statement and possible change in its immigration policy, if these changes go ahead they will need to change their policy on fostering. These changes would result in members of the Labour Party not being allowed to foster any children from an ethnic background. While this would be regrettable and considerably reduce the people eligible to foster ethnic children, they would have no further course of action in order to safeguard the cultural upbringing of the ethnic children’
This would be consistent with their recent ruling ‘in 2012 the local council removed three children from a foster couple because they were UKIP members’.
61chrissterry 