Yesterday saw the start of fostering fortnight.
Research carried out by The Fostering Network highlighted yesterday some of the issues that children and young people can face. According to the research, teenagers in foster care in the UK are being moved too often with over a third already living with their third foster family.
However, in Dumfries and Galloway, fostering and adoption services continue to be amongst the best in the country.
Between October and December last year, the Care Inspectorate looked at a number of Social Work services including the Fostering and Adoption services being provided by the Council. The results showed that the Fostering and Adoption service continues to achieve brilliant results for those in need of support.
Whilst national reports indicate that teenagers are moving around too often, this is not the case locally. The Care Inspectorate found that children are benefiting from very good care provided by committed and caring foster carers and highlighted that the Council’s fostering service manages to recruit and retain foster carers which allows children to stay in their own communities. Furthermore, Councillors have proactively taken steps to make sure that young people are not moved around by setting a permanency target which they will continue to scrutinise.
Furthermore, the Council established a Champions Board last year. The Board is for Looked After and Young People and Care Leavers. This is chaired by a Looked After Child and attended by Councillors, the Chief Social Work Officer and managers from health, social work, education and the third sector. The Board provides a great opportunity for young people to be actively involved in decision-making and allows them to shape, influence and improve a range of services they access and receive.
Councillor Jim Dempster, chairman of the Social Work Services committee, said, “Providing the best start in life for all our children, protecting the most vulnerable, and being inclusive are key priorities for our Council. Our fostering and adoption service delivers on these commitments on a daily basis. Fostering fortnight is an opportunity for people to find out more about fostering and also to showcase the excellent work that foster carers do. Our fostering and adoption service has received very good reports from the Care Inspectorate and in many cases, bucks the national trend. Whilst other areas struggle to recruit foster carers, here in Dumfries and Galloway, we have dedicated foster carers throughout the region. We also provide a specialist support service for foster carers which means children with complex behaviours can experience a good family life and are not put back into the system. We are very proud that our fostering and adoption service continues to do well and makes a positive difference for so many children and young people in our region.”
Fantastic Fostering Services throughout Dumfries and Galloway
