Read our news updates to find out about our latest views, work and developments.
Fostering Network have published their fourth State of the Nation Fostering report. This year, as well as surveying foster carers they extended it to fostering service organisations. The survey was completed by over 3000 foster carers and nearly 100 fostering service organisations.
The President of the Family Court, Sir Andrew McFarlane, recently published his long awaited review of transparency in the family court. We were pleased to see the clear priority of the privacy and safeguarding needs of children in both published judgments and in any reporting of proceedings and have issued a joint response with the National Youth Advocacy Service.
Growing numbers of members have been contacting our Advice Line to ask how agencies should deal with assessments that were under way before 30 September 2021, when the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 expired. We asked the Department for Education for guidance and they have now provided us with feedback on the best approach to take.
The roundtable report summarises the findings from a roundtable event held in July 2021, highlighting key areas where the sector could do better in supporting care-experienced people to experience positive relationships that will help shape their futures.
We are very sad to hear that Sir Michael Rutter CBE has passed away. There could not be a more influential person in the field of child psychiatry and child development, following on from the influence of John Bowlby.
We are delighted to support this year’s National Adoption Week and the commitment to share the stories of all those impacted by adoption whose voices are often less heard -adopted people, adopters, birth parents and the Children’s Services workforce.
This is an important case of a fostering agency being challenged over whether their recruitment policy is discriminatory or not – and whether it is lawful for a fostering agency to only accept heterosexual, married, evangelical practicing Christians as foster carers.
Josh MacAlister, the Chair of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, gave a keynote speech talking about his experiences so far, the timescales of the review and what the review will be doing during the autumn and winter following the publication of the Case for Change in July.
At our recent CoramBAAF Members’ Day, we had a panel discussion that explored race and ethnicity in the care system. A very lively and engaged discussion ensued that raised difficult questions that we as an organisation will continue to address and where possible with colleagues in the sector.
Kinship Care Week provides us with an important opportunity to acknowledge the significance of kinship care. Government data and research are continuing to show an increased emphasis on kinship care, in both local authorities and the courts.
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