Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of taking steps to help ensure that the transition of children from foster care to adoption does not have a detrimental impact to the (a) children and (b) former foster parents.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The transition from foster care to adoption is a critical period that can significantly impact both the children involved and their former foster parents.
Statutory guidance on placing adopted children states that a clear plan to move a child from foster care to an adoptive placement must be agreed. In many cases a series of introductory meetings will be needed, and guidance is clear that foster carers should be supported by their social worker on such arrangements. What is important is that both the child and prospective adopter feel well prepared before the placement and are happy with the pace of the introductions and date of the placement.
Adoption England are implementing National Matching Practice Standards, which includes detail on how children should move in with their adoptive families. The Standards state that professionals involved with the child should ensure an appropriate plan is made to enable the child to maintain relationships with their foster family following the period of introductions to their prospective adoptive family.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve (a) the physical and mental health and (b) other aspects of the lives of unpaid and kinship carers.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Kinship carers play an extremely important role in both their kin children’s lives and in the children’s social care system.
The government is committed to working in partnership with local government to support children in care, whether they are being looked after by their community or kinship, foster carers and adoptive parents. The department recognises the challenges many kinship carers face. The government will consider how to most effectively transform the children’s social care system so that it is better delivering for children and families. This will include considering how best to support kinship carers and children in kinship care.
The department will recruit the first ever National Kinship Care Ambassador to advocate for kinship carers and work directly with local authorities to improve services. The ambassador will be appointed in 2024 and will support government and local authorities to keep kinship carers at the heart of their services.
The government is extending the delivery of peer support groups, which will sustain over 140 peer support groups across England where all types of kinship carers, including private foster carers, can come together to share stories, support each other, and exchange advice.
The department is also funding a package of in person and online training and support that all kinship carers across England may access. The service went live in April 2024 and is being delivered by the charity, Kinship.