High rate of relative carers not approved

ONLY half of foster careers who look after a relative have been properly assessed or approved, a new audit has shown.

Some 44% of relative foster carers nationwide are unapproved, according to the audit, details of which are contained in a report being published today by the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI).

The scale of the problem differs from region to region. In the Northern Area Health Board, there are 204 relative foster carers with whom children have been placed. But 171 of these, or 84%, have yet to be approved.

By contrast, the Midland Health Board has placed children with 54 relative foster carers, and all but three have been approved.

The report shows 4,012 children and young people were in foster care at the end of 2003. A further 68 were in supported lodgings.

Of those being fostered, one-third were related to their carers. While approval rates of relative foster carers were problematic, the rates for non-family carers were significantly better. Nationally, just 4% of unrelated carers were unapproved.

However, the SSI acknowledges in its report that the high numbers of relative foster carers still not approved is worrying.

“Of concern was the fact that all boards had relative foster carers who had not been through the processes of assessment and approval as required by the standards,” the report states.

“There was an added concern in respect of unapproved relative foster care placements because they were less likely to have social work support or formal care planning as required by the standards.”

However the findings of the report were favourable overall. Almost one-third of all non-family carers had been recruited in the three years to December last, indicating that people are still willing to foster.

“Inspectors found that each of the community care areas provided a good foster care service,” it notes.