Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to provide the same level of access to (a) training and (b) support to (i) kinship and (ii) foster carers.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve. It is also necessary to achieve financial stability for local authorities.

This government is committed to helping children thrive, and we want the best for every child and family. We want to build on the foundations laid by local authorities to create a care system that works for everyone.

This government recognises the valuable and important role that kinship and foster carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children. Our manifesto committed to working with local government to support children in care, including through kinship and fostering arrangements.

The government is extending the delivery of over 140 peer support groups across England, available for all kinship carers to access, where they can come together to share stories, exchange advice and support each other. The department is also delivering a package of training and support that all kinship carers across England can access.

It is important that foster carers receive the support they need to fulfil this role and to meet the needs of the children in their care. The department is investing over £36 million this spending review to deliver 10 local authority regional fostering recruitment and retention hubs, covering 64% of local authorities in England. The majority of hubs launched this summer and include rollout of the Mockingbird programme in all local authorities, which offers peer-support to foster carers and the children in their care.

The department is also funding Fosterlink, a new support service for local authority fostering services not in the regional programme. This identifies areas for improvement and creates a national network to share best practice.

The department also encourages fostering service providers to adhere to the Foster Carer Charter. The Charter sets out clear principles for how foster carers should be treated and recognises their invaluable work. This was refreshed in February 2022 and sets out the responsibilities of foster carers, fostering services and the corporate parent. It aims to deliver best practice in fostering for all involved, including carers and children.

The Charter can be accessed here: https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/get-involved/our-campaigns/foster-carers-charter-0.