The Fostering Landscape
Guide to Fostering Children - Part One
The term ‘fostering landscape’ refers to the setting in which foster care exists – The sort of background information that’s useful if you’re involved with foster care or keen to know more about fostering children.
We can all agree that it makes sense to do your homework before you commit to a new role. That’s certainly the case when it comes to becoming a foster carer, so let’s look at the current landscape.
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What the Fostering Landscape Looks Like
The fostering landscape has become incredibly diverse, reflecting the general population. Children come from all backgrounds, and many fostered children have complex needs. There’s also a high demand for placements and a national shortage of foster carers.
There’s been new legislation, changes to fostering regulations, and recruitment drives. But sadly, there still aren’t enough people willing to consider fostering a child. These factors have put a significant strain on local authorities. Many councils now rely on the help of independent fostering agencies (IFAs) and independent fostering providers (IFPs).
The emergence of IFAs and IFPs was a direct result of changes made to the Care Standards Act of 2000. Changes that permitted fostering agencies to recruit, assess, approve and train new foster carers.
How Has Foster Care Changed?
The aim of foster care has always been to deliver therapeutic care to children who can’t live with their parents. But the fostering landscape has changed in recent decades. Here are three fundamental ways it has changed.
1. Demand for Fostering Placements
One significant change to the fostering landscape is the increased demand for fostering placements. Today, over 68,000 children in the UK are living in foster placements. That’s more than 75% of all looked after children. In the 1970’s the number was closer to 30%.
The increased demand for fostering placements is due to several factors:
The Benefits of Foster Care
There’s no real substitute for growing up at home within a caring family environment. The developmental benefits of receiving consistent, positive care during childhood are tremendous.
Foster care can provide a family setting – where a child feels cared for and safe. These are essential ingredients for any child’s healthy growth and development. Think back to your childhood – you can probably remember feeling safe and secure.
Difficulties with Adoption
Adoption offers a lot of the same benefits as foster care and often works well. The trouble is, there have never been enough people ready to adopt. There are a lot of children who are not placed with adopters but do have an adoption decision. There are also a lot of children awaiting placement who already have a placement order for adoption.
Less Use of Children’s Homes
By the late 1970s, the idea that children do best when they grow up in a family setting was commonplace. It led to a move away from the use of children’s homes. These days, there’s less use of them except for when adoption or foster care aren’t considered suitable.
Public Awareness
High profile cases of child abuse have raised public awareness. The deaths of Baby P and Daniel Pelka are two shocking examples you might have heard about in the news. Such cases have led to changes in practice. Social services are now prepared to intervene earlier, particularly if it’s felt that a child might be at risk of harm.
Such cases aren’t a new problem; a lot of people are under investigation for historic child abuse allegations. If you look at the figures for extreme cases, the number of deaths due to neglect and abuse are falling. Of those, only a small proportion are known to social services.
2. Demographic Changes
Something else that’s altered the ‘landscape’ is the change in the demographic. More children in foster care have complex needs than in the past. They also come from a broader mixture of cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds reflecting the general population.
There are more sibling groups, which tend to be larger than in the past. And there are new groups such as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Sibling groups, older children, and those with complex needs can be harder to place. This has increased the need for foster families with specific skills and qualities that can meet the needs of these groups.
3. Training and Support
In the early 1980s, the government introduced national training programmes for foster carers. Although the requirements to foster haven’t changed much, the expectations around training have.
Becoming a foster carer now includes a period of pre-approval training that helps to prepare you for the role. There are also ongoing training opportunities once you’re approved as a foster carer.
In the past, fostering a child was often viewed as a kind of voluntary occupation. Now that’s less the case. Changes to foster care pay and allowances mean that foster carers now receive a fee, while some receive salaries.
The Fostering Landscape is the 1st part of our 7-part Guide to Fostering Children. Part 2 is The Requirements to Foster.
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