Fostering Better Outcomes: The government’s response to the Education Select Committee inquiry into fostering and the independent review, Foster Care in England, has now been published.
To read the full response click here
The Government have also published a version for children and young people. Please click here
FosterTalk welcomes the Departmental response to the independent review, Foster Care in England by Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers and the Education Select Committee’s fostering report. We view this as an opportunity to investigate and improve further methods of good practice to ensure that children in the care system are placed at the center of the decision making.
We particularly welcome the recognition for greater placement stability and more emphasis being placed upon the child’s wishes with greater control of their own care planning.
We are encouraged by the exploration of a national policy forum and would look towards this to remove the current ambiguity seen between fostering services and foster carers.
Our members are heartened by the continued empowering of foster families by increasing the delegated authority alongside the provision of support and training. We see this as a means to offering greater placement stability which will also help in recruiting and retaining passionate, dedicated foster carers with the right motivation to provide quality foster care. This will better support the life chances for our children. Every child that enters the care system has the right to expect that decisions are made in their best interests and we embrace the opportunity to use innovation and new technology to achieve this.
FosterTalk are pleased to see that the department view commissioning and the matching process as a significant priority. We will look to continue our work as a facilitator between all parties with a vested interest and intend to build upon our recent symposiums conducted within the sector. We eagerly await the announcement of the seed funding with a view to drive improvements within the sector promoting better matching choices increasing child focused decisions.
FosterTalk will continue to work alongside all stakeholders, actively engaging the opinion and views of their members alongside the reporting of the experiences of Fosterline service users. We appreciate the opportunity to work together at the heart of fostering to improve the role of foster care for both the children in care and the foster families providing that essential nurturing environment.
We owe it to all children within our care system to act on the evidence and recommendations from the two reviews to improve practice and ultimately provide the opportunities that our children deserve. We all need to play our part in realising this potential to make a difference to the child in care.
If you have any feedback or comments on the Governments response, please email enquiries@fostertalk.org with the subject heading “Fostering Better Outcomes” and we will continue to reflect these views to the Department for Education.