Media releases

The Fostering Network is delighted to welcome Jacqueline Cassidy as its new director for practice and Scotland. 

Last week the Government made an announcement about a package of support in England for vulnerable families. The Fostering Network welcomes the additional £302 million to create new Family Hubs in England and urges those local authorities implementing the Hubs to ensure that they provide early intervention to those children in foster care who need it, alongside their peers.

Weekly fostering allowances are designed to cover the full costs of looking after a child or young person in foster care. No foster carer should be out of pocket as a result of caring for a child on behalf of the state.  

In Wales, England and Northern Ireland there is a national minimum allowance and each year in April, these allowances are uprated to reflect the increase in the cost of living.  

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the UK government have launched a scheme for families to put themselves forward to welcome Ukrainian families into their homes.

The Fostering Network and CoramBAAF are receiving enquiries asking for advice. The key principles for The Fostering Network and CoramBAAF are as follows:

The Adoption and Children Bill was passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday with full cross-party support. We warmly welcome the passing of the Adoption and Children Bill which represents a huge step forward for children’s social care, as the first piece of legislation focussed on the fostering system since the 1995 Children Order.   

We welcome the recommendations set out in the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) final report published yesterday that sets clearer expectations at a national, regional and local level in England, Scotland and Wales to ensure that all children in care are living in placements that meets all their needs.    

Today the Department of Health in Northern Ireland announced additional funding of almost £1 million to support foster carers and supported lodging hosts.

The funding package aims to help foster carers to continue the vital work they are doing, by providing additional funding of £25 per week for each child or young person being looked after between January 2022 and March 2022.

The Fostering Network is calling on all fostering services in the UK to implement a foster carers’ charter, as its latest report on the status of foster carers highlights that foster carers are not treated with the respect and value their vital role warrants, and not given the support they need to help children thrive.

• New training course, developed by Internet Matters, The Fostering Network and Dr Simon P Hammond from UEA, has been created for foster carers to help keep children in their care safe online
• Research shows that children in care are more at risk of encountering harms online than their peers, with three in 10 receiving threatening messages online
• Training will educate foster carers on how they can support children’s safety and digital resilience online
• Foster carers can now access the training through trainer-led virtual sessions led by The Fostering Networ

We know that it has been extremely challenging for our foster carer members over the last few years, not least due to the impact of Covid-19.

To address these challenges our stress support service will be extended to a 24 hours a day, seven days a week-service provided by BACP accredited counsellors.

The changes to this service will take effect from Monday, 7 February 2022.  

The phone number will remain the same, but as always, we suggest you save it in your phones: 01384 889 549.