News

Responding to the Westminster Government’s response to The House of Commons Education Committee's report, Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Looked After Children, Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said:

Clause 8 of the Children and Social Work Bill expands the information that courts must have in the care plan when deciding whether to make a care order for a child. 

Fostering Achievement has been running since 2007 and provides bespoke educational support and resources to looked after children living with foster families in Northern Ireland.

The programme’s impact is increasingly apparent in improved outcomes for young people. Of those GCSE students who received tuition from Fostering Achievement in 2014, almost twice as many gained five or more A*-C grades compared to the general looked after child population.

We are delighted to share this latest paper from the Alliance, developed in conjunction with a roundtable of experts. Promoting the Emotional Wellbeing of Children in Care examines options for assessing and measuring looked after children’s wellbeing and mental health outcomes throughout their care experience.

Fostering families in Wales have been enjoying a new interactive exhibition about Roald Dahl’s life at the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) in Cardiff for free.

In a bid to encourage more looked after children to explore the arts the WMC gave The Fostering Network in Wales some free tickets for foster carers to take part in workshops and visit the exhibition: The Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl.

On the eighth day of the eighth month (8 August) staff from Dreams, the leading bed specialist, embarked on an 88-mile cycle trip; stopping at eight Dreams stores along the way in a bid to raise £8,888.88 for The Fostering Network.

Why all the eights? Dreams are currently encouraging people to renew their mattresses every eight years.

The Fostering Network welcomes the communities and local government select committee report into homelessness, and their recommendation for Government to consider reviewing the transition to independence for care leavers.

The Fostering Network has launched our bi-annual State of the Nation survey which seeks to gather the views of foster carers regarding a range of issues affecting fostering across the UK.

As well as developing key themes from the 2014 State of the Nation report, this year's survey focuses on a number of issues such as:

The Fostering Network is delighted to have been chosen as Sainsbury’s Local Charity of the Year by the Blackfriars Road branch of Sainsbury’s Local.

Tony Round, head of fundraising at The Fostering Network, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for The Fostering Network to partner with our local Sainsbury’s store. It shows the impact that our charity makes the community surrounding our London office and we hope that the people of Southwark will continue to support us over the next year.”

In response to a BBC article about foster carers being offered cash incentives to move between fostering providers, Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: 'The Fostering Network has transfer protocols which guide the way in which fostering services should manage the movement of foster carers between fostering services, and which have support from across the fostering sector.