Foster Care

(asked on 16th March 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take improve the level of foster carer retention.


Answered by
Claire Coutinho Portrait
Claire Coutinho
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
This question was answered on 24th March 2023

The department recognises the urgent need to change the way local authorities retain foster carers. We are investing over £3 million to deliver an initial fostering recruitment and retention programme in the North East Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance. As part of this, retention will be improved with the evidence-based model Mockingbird. Since 2014, the department has provided over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme as an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care. The department will then expand our recruitment and retention programme from 2023, by investing over £24 million.

The department will work to recruit and retain more foster carers where there are particular shortages. Depending on local need, this may include sibling groups, teenagers, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, other children who have suffered complex trauma or parent and child foster homes.

Additionally, the department continues to fund Fosterline and Fosterline Plus, a free-to-access helpline and support service for current and prospective foster carers, to provide high quality, independent information and advice on a range of issues.

In recognition of the increasing costs of living, we are also raising the National Minimum Allowance (NMA). Foster carers will benefit from a 12.43% increase to the NMA. This above inflation increase in allowance will help foster parents cover the increasing costs of caring for a child in their home.

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