FAILURE TO ENGAGE WITH MALE FOSTER CARERS MEANS CHILDREN MISS OUT, CHARITY WARNS
Immediate release: Wednesday 29 April, 2009
FOSTERED CHILDREN will lose out on the best possible care if fostering services fail to engage with male foster carers, a leading charity warns this week.
In a new report, Learning together: Learning from each other, launched today by the Fostering Network, the charity says it is vital that fostering services improve access to training and support for their male foster carers. If they fail to do this, male foster carers will not be able to meet required standards and stay on top of the latest developments in child care practice.
Male foster carers can offer a valuable and positive relationship to some of society’s most vulnerable children. They can give children, especially boys, the opportunity to explore issues about their birth father and have contact with men who understand their needs. They can act as role models giving fostered children their first positive close of daily contact with men.
However, many say that they often cannot take part in training sessions and professional development opportunities, often held in traditional office hours. They also say that the content and delivery of these sessions does not take their needs into account. Male carers who foster as part of a couple are often considered ‘second-class’ by other professionals working with a child, who overlook them in favour of a female partner.
All foster carers must take part in ongoing training in order to meet the Training, Support and Development Standards for foster care. With funding from the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, the Fostering Network has produced a practical toolkit, guidance and recommendations to help fostering services engage men, and others considered to be ‘hard to reach’ such as older foster carers and those who speak English as an additional language.
Joanna Adande, membership development manager at the Fostering Network, said: ‘Male foster carers have a particularly important place as role models for children in care. It is vital that fostering services do everything they can to ensure that all their foster carers can attend training and are engaged with and included in all aspects of fostering.
‘If fostering services fail to do this, these foster carers will not be able to meet the standards, which means they will not be able to continue fostering. There is already a shortage of 10,000 foster carers across the UK – fostering services can’t afford to lose any more through complacency.’
ENDS
------
For more information contact the Fostering Network on 020 7620 8415/6441/6416, or email .
Notes to editors:
1. The report Learning together: Learning from each other will be launched on Wednesday 29 April at the Prince Albert Suite, ZSL London Zoo, Regents Park, London, NW1 between 10.30am-3.30pm.
2. The Fostering Network is the UK ’s leading charity for all those involved in fostering, and aims to make life better for fostered children and the families that care for them. It has offices in Belfast , Cardiff , Glasgow and London .
2. The CWDC was set up by the Government in 2005 to support the implementation of Every Child Matters. The government's aim - through the Every Child Matters programme - is for every child to have the support they need to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being.
3. Learning together: Learning from each other was written by the members of the School of Education at the University of Hertfordshire in partnership with The Fostering Network. It will be distributed to all fostering service providers and is available from The Fostering Network and the CWDC.It is designed to have wider applicability and increase the participation of men across the childcare workforce in England.
4. There are nearly 30,000 male foster carers in the UK. Approximately one per cent of all foster carers are single men.
5. There are just over 59,500 children and young people looked after on any given day in the UK. Over 51,000 (71 per cent) live with 43,000 foster families.