FosterWiki

This is fostering 🙌

⛰️ Our #EndTheCareCliff campaign group were in Westminster yesterday calling on the Government to: 🚫 1. End the Care Cliff - Make Staying Put and Staying Close schemes fully funded, opt-out legal entitlements for all young people in care up to 25 🏡 2. Create a homelessness safety net for care leavers by amending homelessness legislation to: - Urgently introduce the exemption to the local area connection test - Make all care leavers up to 25 a priority need for homelessness support. - Exempt care leavers from homelessness intentionality rules 💜 3. Increase access to safe, appropriate homes by requiring all local authorities to provide a consistent rent guarantor and deposit scheme for care leavers. ➡️ Support our campaign: BecomeCharity.org.uk/ETCC #NCLW

Seriously? Yet another disheartening marketing post—this appears to be yet another gunuine fake blog. It’s no surprise outcomes are so poor, with new carer retention plummeting and existing carer retention steadily declining. And let’s not forget the impact on outcomes for children. Being a foster carer is a complex, serious role, not something to be trivialised as simply cooking nice meals, sharing cuddles, and reading a 'dreamy' bedtime story. And as for the idea of a 'babysitter', suggesting that thats easy! DBS checks, assesments, not to mention the posibility of being subject to allegations. And where's all that time to recharge and reflect together, what planet are they on? Ah, that’s right, none of them have actually fostered. Promoting this as 'fostering' is, quite frankly, irresponsible, not to mention insulting. #fostercare #frontline

When social workers control every aspect of foster care organisations, training, and support, the system becomes skewed in ways that can negatively impact foster carers and, by extension, the children they care for. Social workers, though crucial to the system, can not be all things to all men, they are not foster carers and will never have the actual frontline experience or skills, and of course will naturally approach fostering from their perspective and training, a regulatory or administrative perspective, focusing on compliance, safeguarding, and process. #fostercare #frontline #experts https://lnkd.in/enng_dSm

I wonder how many children and young people now classified as having 'very complex needs' didn’t start that way when they first entered care, but were further traumatised by the very system intended to protect them? These young people have often endured years of multiple moves between foster homes ill equipped to understand or meet the needs of vulnerable, traumatised children. Many foster carers, though well intentioned, have been told that fostering is simply about having a spare room, a big heart, and 'being parents', without adequate training or guidance on the unique demands of the role. As a result, too many children have been failed, not because of malice, but because of a system that leaves carers unprepared. Children with complex emotional or behavioural needs, are then labeled as 'difficult', 'challenging' or 'troubled' when in fact, they have simply been further traumatised by the very system that was meant to provide a safe and nurturing environment. Rather than being acknowledged as children and young people who were denied adequate care, they are burdened with stigmatising labels that overlook the true source of their pain. They are conveniently portrayed as 'difficult', 'uncooperative' or 'disruptive', shifting the focus away from the failures of the corporate parent. Whilst I acknowledge there are some that are always in need of specialist residential settings we see that as a result of these labels, they often end up in residential homes because either no foster carers are available to take them in, or the carers who are available may not be equipped to handle these now 'complex needs'. FosterWiki is now collaborating regularly with the Department for Education on all aspects of fostering. The 2024 Independent Foster Carer’s Survey has finally provided the empirical evidence needed to support our advocacy, and work on meaningful reform is now underway. #fostercare #frontline #betteroutcomes

For some years now, I have been reading posts and articles about the huge profits being made in children’s social care, and as a carer, it’s just heartbreaking. We see firsthand how difficult life has been for these vulnerable children—and for many as care leavers—so to hear of people profiting from their hardship feels incredibly wrong. This isn’t a new issue—it’s been discussed for years. So why hasn’t government stepped in to investigate and make changes if things are truly this bad? Foster carers, whether they work with private agencies or local authorities, don’t benefit at all from this money. Instead, too many are left struggling, often moving from one provider to another just to find adequate support and, in recent years, even to keep going for the sake of the children they care for. The truth is, without foster carers, there wouldn’t be a foster care system. Yet, despite how essential their role is, carers are mostly ignored in conversations about profits and reforms. If they are serious about improving the system and the lives of children in care, they must ensure that foster carers are included, supported, respected, and fairly compensated. They are the ones doing the real work to make a difference and deserve so much more than they currently receive. Honestly, this constant focus on profits in social care could be hurting efforts to recruit and retain foster carers. The public is often left with the wrong impression—that foster carers are somehow benefiting from a profit driven system—which couldn’t be further from the truth! It’s time to resolve this issue. The government needs to take action, as they are the only ones with the power to create meaningful change #ChildrensSocialCareReform #FosterCare #ChildrenInCare #SupportFosterCarers #SupportCareLeavers #ReformFosterCare

This is a fantastic course, for everyone, not just the carers, it really benefits providers as well.

How long have you got National Union of Professional Foster Carers! However, since the FosterWiki Independent Foster Carer's Survey I'm very pleased to feedback that people are now listening, including the government and we are working with them on allegations, importantly on the wider negative impact they have on foster care sector, and ultimately on the placement stability and outcomes for the children in our care. #fostercare #frontline #allegations #reform

Honestly this made us laugh so much! However, the sad thing is it's true, and that's why we continue to support carers and are determined to radically change and improve fostering for our children and those who care for them.

What excellence in foster care looks like. Thank you for all you do and have done for our children and young people Carolyn Moody MBE