News

On Wednesday 22 February 2017, Ofsted launched the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) which will be implemented in April 2017. Ofsted have worked with key stakeholders (including foster carers) across England to develop the new inspection framework which focuses on three core principles across all inspections in children’s social care namely:

Young people who have grown up in care are far more likely to die in early adulthood than other young people according to a BBC report today.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show 90 people who left care in the UK between 2012 and 2016 died in the years when they would have turned 19, 20 or 21. Care leavers make up one per cent of the population at these ages, but make up around seven per cent of the deaths.

The Fostering Network is delighted to endorse the Initial Family and Friends Care Assessment: A Good Practice Guide which is launched today. The guide, which was developed by Family Rights Group in partnership with an expert working group, of which The Fostering Network was a member, aims to provide social workers with a clear framework for undertaking preliminary assessments of family and friends (commonly known as viability assessments).

The UK’s fostering system is under ‘unsustainable strain’ and is being held together by the goodwill and commitment of thousands of dedicated foster carers, leading fostering charity The Fostering Network is warning today (Tuesday 31 January 2017). This risks undoing the hard-won improvements in raising the aspirations and achievements of fostered children, undermining the terms, conditions and recruitment of foster carers, and increasing long-term societal and financial costs.

As the world’s eyes turn to Washington DC, The Fostering Network is proud to announce the appointment of its own new president here in the UK.

The new appointee is foster carer Libby Thornhill, who takes over the mantle from our current president Jim Bond. Darren Harman-Page will be joining Libby as vice president.

The improving educational achievements of young people in foster care were celebrated this week at an event in Stormont. The celebration was to mark the tenth birthday of Fostering Achievement, a unique scheme which offers practical support to foster families to help fostered children and young people achieve their potential and improve educational outcomes.

Following the speech today by Prime Minster Theresa May regarding mental health services, Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network, said: ‘We welcome a focus on mental health services, especially the review of children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), as we regularly hear from foster carers who tell us that the children they are looking after cannot get the support from CAMHS that they so desperately need.