Campaigns update June 2016

Foster Care Fortnight was a great success again, we were thrilled that a number of politicians were able to lend their support by sharing their favourite 20 minutes of the previous year. In this way we were able to highlight that every 20 minutes a child comes into care in the UK. A couple of ministers, three mayors, and ten MPs all lent support to our important national foster carer recruitment campaign.

On 26 May we held a fundraising event in the House of Lords, hosted by the Earl of Listowel, who has been an important champion for foster care in the upper house over the past few years. Over sixty people attended from various corporate backgrounds, and they learnt a lot about both foster care and The Fostering Network. We are hopeful that a number of new relationships will be forged as a result of this, with the potential for income generation to support our work to improve foster care for everyone. Why not get involved with raising some money for The Fostering Network yourself? Our team would love to hear from you.

The Queen's Speech on 18 May introduced some new legislation with relevance to foster care: the Children and Social Work Bill. It contains a number of measures related to children in care, and elements of it also address the Government's focus on speeding up the adoption process, which you may have read about in the news lately.

Despite the Government's focus on adoption, the Bill is also an opportunity for us to campaign for improvements to foster care, and with this in mind we have identified a number of clauses worthy of amendments around permanence, corporate parenting, and stability. We have already met with shadow minister, Sharon Hodgson MP, about the Bill and over the coming months there will be opportunities for campaigners to get involved, so watch this space!

As ever, if you have any questions about our campaigns work, please get in touch on campaigns@fostering.net