The Fostering Network is encouraging foster carers and fostering services to complete an online survey looking at the initial impact and implementation of the staying put legislation in England.

Jackie Sanders, director of communications and public affairs at The Fostering Network, said: “Staying put was a crucial piece of legislation that has already started to make a real difference to young people leaving foster care, and we need to make sure that continues.

“We are keen to ensure that implementation of the legislation happens smoothly and quickly, with foster carers being supported to continue offering a home to young people beyond 18. Completing this survey, which is to be reported directly to the Department for Education, will ensure that the Government is clear on how staying put is being implemented, and if it is achieving its aims.”

Findings from the survey, being carried out by NCB as part of the Children’s Partnership (the voluntary and community sector strategic partner to the Department for Education), will be reported anonymously to the department in January 2015.

You can complete the survey here. 

The opportunity for young people to stay put with their foster carers until the age of 21 came into law in early 2014 following The Fostering Network’s successful Don’t Move Me campaign.

The Department for Education has now allocated the first year of additional funding for Staying Put provision to local authorities in England, with further information on the subsequent two years of funding due to be released in February 2015. You can find details of your local authority’s allocation of funds on the Government website.