Archive for foster care
Fostering in England and Wales is under increasing pressure due to the unprecedented rise in numbers of children needing foster care and the shortage of 10,000 foster carers, according to the charity Fostering Network.
Research carried out by the charity found that eight out of ten local authorities saw a rise in the number of children needing foster homes in 2009-10, a third of whom needed to find families for more than fifty additional children.
There is a particular need for more foster carers for teenagers and children under four. The shortage of foster carers has ...
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The Fostering Network have warned that children’s social workers must value the role of foster carers and recognise them as equal members of the child care team to ensure children are properly looked after.
A new report, Getting the support they need, has revealed that less than half of foster carers (44 per cent) feel the support they receive from children’s social workers is ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, with a quarter saying it is ‘poor’.
Moreover, more than half (51 per cent) of foster carers have looked after a child in the last three years for whom they were not given all the ...
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The UK is heading for a crisis in foster care due to an impending rise in the shortage of foster carers, the Fostering Network charity has warned in a report showing two-thirds of foster carers are approaching potential retirement age.
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The Age of Foster Care, published this week to coincide with the launch of Foster Care Fortnight, found that 65 per cent of foster carers are in their 50s, 60s or 70s. While there is no upper age limit on fostering, these figures suggest that a huge proportion of foster carers might choose to retire over the next 10 to 15 ...
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If you are a foster carer and have been falsely accused or let down by a care authority or fostering agency you may find BBC Radio Four programme On the Ropes in which John Humphrey’s interviews successful people who have weathered storms in their careers.
In the most recent programme he relates how Marjorie took on difficult teenagers and tried to give them a better life, but when one foster child made accusations of sexual abuse and began a string of threatening phone calls, her life was sent into turmoil. It took a further 10 years to discover that vital and disturbing information about the ...
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In the interests of fairness and openess we draw your attention to a web site which set up to support victims of child abuse in care homes, and represents the other sde of the argument.
The website is called poundpuplegacy
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Children’s services union Aspect today called for a new employment deal for frontline childcare workers.
Aspect general secretary John Chowcat said, “We welcome moves by the Children’s Workforce Development Council to recognise the professional status of specialist foster carers.
“In the broad spectrum of childcare specialist foster carers provide vital support to the most challenging young people. However, to meet the needs of these children and young people at risk it is necessary for these key workers to move from self-employed status and to be employed on permanent contracts with pay, pensions and conditions that reflect their specialist roles.”
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The following article appeared in the Australian Weekly (here) on the 14th November 2008
Families and Communities Minister Jennifer Rankine is under fire for accusing an innocent man of paedophilia.
Thomas Frank Easling was accused and last November was acquitted of numerous child molestation charges after working as a foster carer.
He and his supporters, as well as a number of MPs, want a Royal Commission-type inquiry into aspects of the prosecution’s case.
They allege Crown witnesses were given inducements in exchange for allegations, that files disappeared, and that interviews with accusers were not always recorded.
Easling pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Member for Davenport, Iain ...
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F.A.C.T. (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers) is a UK wide voluntary organisation. It exists partly to support carers, teachers and other professionals falsely accused or wrongly convicted of abuse, and partly to lobby for change in investigative practice and in the criminal justice system. F.A.C.T. gains its support from academics, criminal defence lawyers, justice groups, and from an increasing numbers of the press, politicians, professionals and the general public.
If you have been falsely accused of abusing others, or know someone who has, this site provides useful information on what we do, who we are, as well as useful advice and access to information and resources.
Although this site contains ...
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F.A.C.T. (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers) is a UK wide, membership based, voluntary organisation run by a national committee consisting of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, three other committee members, regional representatives and co-opted members. It is responsible for its own fund-raising and receives no financial or other help from Government or local authorities.
F.A.C.T. has its roots in the decisions of various police forces in the UK to undertake historical investigations into alleged abuse in former children’s homes and residential schools.
The first to do this was the North Wales Police Force who began their inquires in 1991. They were followed by Merseyside and Cheshire ...
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The following article by James Walker appeared in The Australian on 11th September
There is no reconciling the competing views about Tom Easling. According to the police and investigators for the South Australian Department for Families and Communities, he was too good to be true: not the kind, caring man he presented as but a pedophile who “hid in plain sight”.
A Supreme Court jury, however, concluded otherwise. Last November, the former public servant, who moonlighted as a volunteer foster carer, was found not guilty of 20 counts of indecent assault and unlawful sexual intercourse involving eight of the 100-odd boys entrusted to ...
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Details of private family court proceedings that led to a mother fleeing the country with her son after he was placed in foster care have been disclosed after legal action by The Times.
The highly unusual ruling allows the publication of undisclosed details of the case. The boy’s stepfather was sent to prison for 16 months for helping the mother to remove him from care and flee abroad.
She has since had another baby, the couple’ first child. The stepfather has been released from prison but is forbidden to contact his wife. (contd)
Acknowledgement: Rosemary Bennett, TImes, Social Affairs Correspondent
Other articles which may be ...
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According to a news item on ABC the South Australian Government has made an historic apology to former wards of the State who were abused while in government care.
Transcript:
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: The South Australian Government today made an historic apology to former Wards of the State who were abused while in government care.
The apology follows an exhaustive inquiry by former Supreme Court Judge Ted Mullighan who personally heard the stories from hundreds of people detailing abuse they suffered while in state institutions.
The Government has accepted all but one of his 54 recommendations and has committed an extra $190 million for ...
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The following letter recently appeared in the Islington Tribune
The call from Community Service Volunteers director Dame Elisabeth Hoodless to recruit volunteers to help families of children on the at-risk register is a move in the right direction (Government must volunteer funds to support vital helpers, May 30).
The hope that such a programme is successful has gained momentum in recent weeks following questions over the ability of social services to keep children safe in tragic cases such as that of Khyra Ishaq, the seven-year-old child in Birmingham, who appears to have been allowed to starve to death.
The initiative is being introduced at ...
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Local authorities seeking 5,000 more foster carers this year
The Fostering Network, a support charity for foster carers, claims that local authorities are seeking to recruit an additional 5,000 foster carers in the next 12 months. They asked local authorities throughout the UK for their recruitment targets for this year and 86% of councils respond.
The survey results were released to coincide with the launch of Foster Care Fortnight, running from 12 May to 25 May.
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Hansared Extract 17 Mar 2008 : Column 64 Baroness Walmsley:Amendments Nos. 16 and 35 are about a duty to continue making fee payments to foster carers about whom allegations are being investigated, until such time as the matter has been settled. Since we debated this matter in Committee, I have heard that the Government timescales for the resolution of allegations set out in their Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance are routinely being missed. The emotional strain from the considerable length of time it takes to resolve some of these investigations has huge impact on some foster carers, which, when ...
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The following article by Caroline Lovell appeared in Community Care on 17th March 2008“Local authorities must recognise and respect the role of male carers if they are to drive recruitment forward and give vulnerable children positive role models, Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said today.At the charity Men as Foster Carers’ conference, Tapsfield urged councils to give male foster carers “equal status” to women, rather than overlooking them in discussions and decisions.Joe Griffiths, a male foster carer from Caerphilly, Wales, said: ‘When I started fostering eight years ago the social worker would often ring up and ask to ...
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The House of Lords.
Children & Young Persons Bill – Committee Stage 17th January 2008.
Baroness Walmsley.
Amendment No. 98 is about making sure that if a foster parent is accused of an allegation they can continue to receive the fee, because in those circumstances the child will have been taken away from them so they are no longer entitled to the allowance. That is natural justice. It is about being innocent until proven guilty.
The possibility of an allegation being made against them is a constant fear for foster carers. Due to the nature of the children and young people placed with them, ...
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The West Australian Government has announced a $114m compensation program for children abused while in state care. Premier Alan Carpenter estimates 9000 to 10,000 people may be eligible for payments under the scheme, including members of the stolen generation, migrant children and children placed into foster care or state institutions prior to March 2006.People have one year from May next year to apply for compensation.Victims of abuse or neglect would receive an ex-gratia payment of up to $10,000, or up to $80,000 if there was evidence they suffered physical or psychological harm.They would also receive an official apology from the state ...
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Kris Hanns, an independent member of the South Australian Parliament who is also a lawyer specialising in criminal defence, has called on Parliament to set up an inquiry into how the Special Investigations Unit mishandled child sex abuse allegations relating to Tom Easling. Kris has issued the following statement:When Parliament resumes in February I will call for a Parliamentary inquiry into how the Special Investigations Unit of the Department of Families & Communities handled child sex abuse allegations against public servant Tom Easling.Mr Easling was cleared of sex abuse charges as a foster carer. However, serious questions were publicly raised as to how competently ...
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THERE were jubilant scenes in the Supreme Court today as a former foster carer accused of sexually abusing boys in his care was found not guilty.Thomas Frank Easling, 49, of Blackwood, was acquitted of six charges of indecent assault and 12 charges of unlawful sexual intercourse by a jury after deliberating for one and a half days.During the trial the jury was directed by Justice Michael David to find Mr Easling not guilty of one count of unlawful sexual intercourse and one of indecent assault. As the jury left the court room, Mr Easling’s younger brother John thanked them from ...
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Ex-foster carer cleared of child sex charges A court has cleared Thomas Easling, 49, of child sex charges. His supporters welcomed the not guilty verdicts as they were read. (ABC News)After a four-year court battle, a former Adelaide foster carer has been found not guilty of 18 child sex abuse charges involving eight teenage boys over a decade.Thomas Frank Easling, 49, of Blackwood, was impassive as the jury foreman read out the verdicts.But as the last of the 18 not guilty decisions was read, he smiled.The court gallery was packed with supporters, one of whom cried out to the jury ...
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Josie Appleton has written a very thought provoking article on spiked on-line titled Who Would be a Football Coach? You can read it here.
An NCH survey finds that men wouldn’t volunteer to work with kids because they are afraid of being perceived as paedophiles. The Manifesto Club responds.
The vetting of adults in the name of child protection is out of control. Those now being vetted include 16-year-olds teaching younger kids to read, parents volunteering at school, and foster carers’ friends. Running an after-school club is now subject to more stringent security tests than selling explosives.
Read the Manifesto Club reports which ...
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According to a report in the Glasgow Herald foster parents want action on faslse allegations; it says: Foster carers have warned they will not take on any new children following growing concerns about the way they are treated when allegations, including false claims, are made against them.More than 100 foster carers in and around Glasgow have written to the city council to explain they will “bed block” future referrals until steps are taken to agree safeguards.The families say they have been forced to take action because of the way they are treated by police and social work when complaints, however ...
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Could have been a lot worse … Guardian, David Conn, Wednesday March 7, 2007The harshness of life in care homes is chronicled in Phil Frampton’s moving memoir. So why does he believe it is better than being fostered?Phil Frampton stands outside the mock Tudor pile in Southport where, as a Barnardo’s boy in the 1950s and 1960s, he endured a childhood of loneliness, corporal punishment and awful food. Then he makes a startling claim: compared to children in care today, he was lucky. Frampton chronicled a life of neglect and desolation in that home – along with the best efforts ...
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Take a look at the child protection vetting petition on the Manifesto Club website
The vetting of adults in the name of child protection is out of control. Those now being vetted include 16-year-olds teaching younger kids to read, parents volunteering at school, and foster carers’ friends. Running an after-school club is now subject to more stringent security tests than selling explosives.
The new Manifesto Club report, THE CASE AGAINST VETTING, shows how the expansion of vetting is damaging community life.
Add your name to the petition here
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