Foster Care

(asked on 2nd December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the remit of the proposed review of foster care legislation to include foster carer's employment status.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 10th December 2020

Foster Care in England’, the 2017 independent review of foster care, was clear that the current legislative framework is fit for purpose: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foster-care-in-england. The reviewers did not recommend a change to the current employment status of foster carers. Their assessment was consistent with that of the Education Select Committee in determining that whilst there could be improvement in the respect and value shown to foster carers, in recognition of the invaluable role they play in Children’s Social Care and the lives of some of our most vulnerable children, this would not necessarily be achieved by becoming employees of fostering agencies: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmeduc/340/340.pdf. As a result, we have no immediate intention to revise the foster care legislation to that effect.

In our response, ‘Foster Better Outcomes’ (2018), we committed to considering where changes could be made to the statutory guidance to strengthen and clarify issues around support for foster carers and to assess whether the National Minimum Standards for Foster Care should be replaced by Quality Standards: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fostering-better-outcomes. We are committed to undertaking this work and will engage fully with the sector when we do so.

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