Nursery World - Education committee finds care system failing foster children

MPs have called on the Government to conduct a fundamental review of the whole care system.

The Education Select Committee’s first fostering report of 2017-2019, published today (Friday 22 December 2017), calls for higher value to be placed on young people, foster carers and care.

The main recommendations of the report include:

The report also asks the Government to do more to prevent unnecessary placement breakdowns and to review the national minimum allowance and tax rules for foster carers.

The Committee’s inquiry into fostering received more than 100 pieces of written evidence.

MPs also heard evidence from foster carers, with one witness saying carers felt ‘undermined, bypassed and treated as glorified babysitters’, and young people who had faced difficulties in maintaining contact with siblings and family members, including one young person who had been through eight placements in four years, and another who had lived in 13 different foster placements and two children's homes in five years.

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