Fostering in crisis: can flexible care models fix England’s child placement shortfall?
New recruitment campaign to target adults in their 30s and 40s in bid to create 10,000 new foster care places Viennetta Basterfield, 67, spent two decades fostering more than 100 c
By The Guardian
England’s first national campaign to recruit foster carers aims to create 10,000 new foster care places by the end of the current Parliament.
The campaign will focus on adults in their 30s and 40s who may have the time and capacity to foster but have not previously considered it.
The Government says the number of approved foster carers has fallen by 12% since 2019, while the number of children needing care has risen.
The recruitment drive was launched at Number 10 with support from foster carers and people with experience of the care system.
It is backed by £88 million of Government funding to reform fostering. That includes £12.4 million for an innovation fund testing more flexible ways of providing care.
Proposed models include short-term respite fostering and placements at weekends. Other funded projects will examine parent-and-child fostering, therapeutic training, support for carers facing allegations and ways to help children move from residential care into foster families where appropriate.
Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister said more flexible arrangements could make fostering possible for a wider range of people. The Government also plans to introduce a new rulebook for foster carers and digital tools intended to speed up the recruitment process.
The campaign comes as many experienced foster carers approach retirement age. More than a third of current foster carers are aged over 60, according to figures cited in coverage of the initiative.
Viennetta Basterfield, 67, fostered more than 100 children at her west London home over two decades. She and her husband stopped fostering during the Covid pandemic.
Basterfield was nine when her own mother died and was brought up by another woman who took her in. She said that experience influenced her decision to foster.
The Government’s target is to create 10,000 additional foster places by the end of the parliamentary term, while the new programmes are intended to establish which flexible forms of care can work alongside traditional placements.