Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing foster carers with the same legal status as (a) health workers and (b) teachers.

I pay tribute to the vital efforts of foster carers, who carry out a challenging role that requires skill, dedication and love. This government’s investments in foster care will recruit hundreds more new foster families and strengthen support to retain existing carers to improve the life chances of thousands of children.

Health workers and teachers are classed as either workers or employees in law. Our assessment is that worker or employee status would not be appropriate for the family-centred nature of foster care, in which foster carers are committed to children as if they were their own. Instead of care being provided by staff in an institutional framework, children are provided with support and nurture in a loving family home.

We are committed to reviewing our guidance and working with the sector to improve the support that foster carers receive.

The Children Act 1989 and subsequent statutory guidance (Vol. 4: Fostering Services) set out strong safeguards to protect foster carers from unfair treatment, including the requirement for fostering services to have a complaints procedure and whistleblowing policy.