Call for greater foster care investment in the North

The British government is being urged to pump an extra £28.5m (€42.3m) into foster care services in the North.

The money is needed to recruit hundreds more foster carers and retain those already operating, said the Fostering Network and the British Association for Adoption & Fostering.

The two charities make the call for funding in a report The Cost of Foster Care – Investing in our children’s future – which is being launched at Stormont tomorrow.

The report, the first ever study of its kind, assesses the spending that is required to transform foster care services in order to give children in public care the same opportunities to have as successful a future as other children in society.

It found evidence of a shortfall of 350 foster carers in the North and which contributed to the lack of choice for children, placement disruption and further instability.

It said: “This extra expenditure would address the crisis in recruitment and retention of foster carers and ensure that children were provided with high quality care they need, enabling them to do well at school and settle in the community.”

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said: “For the first time we have a substantial and robust calculation of what providing foster care costs. It demonstrates there is a massive shortfall.”

The two charities were, he said, calling on the Government to provide the money needed to ensure the outcomes for children in foster care were the same “as those we want for our own children”.

Felicity Collier, chief executive of BAAF, said there was an overwhelming need to do better for children in public care.

“It is simply not good enough that there is no choice of foster carer for so many children, and that foster carers are not paid a living wage throughout the year so that they can be available when needed,” she said.

The report made the case for planned long-term investment in children who were at risk of becoming the parents of tomorrow’s poorest children, instead of happy, economically active citizens, said Ms Collier.

She added: “We know the sum is huge, but we believe long term savings can be achieved from the adult and family support services that so many looked after children currently need throughout their lives.”

Cecil Worthington, chairman of the Association of Directors of Social Services in Northern Ireland, said the report was extremely opportune, coming as it did at a time of a decline in foster carers and less applicants.

He said: “There is a need for more long term carers; more choice for children at the point of entering the care system,

“Greater capacity is needed for older children and those with complex needs and sibling groups.”