fostering

I’m 100% behind the sentiment here but in our broken system of Local Government finance who is going to meet the additional costs? I hope central Government will find some extra resource. The story, written by a foster carer tells us:

The Fostering Network’s bleak State of the Nation report therefore came as no surprise, bar one comment: “a crisis is looming”. To those of us working as foster care workers, it is all too clear that this crisis is already here.

We established the foster care workers branch of Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) two-and-a-half years ago to provide a voice for foster carers, something we have never had before. One of our aims has been to provide foster carers with individual representation, which has put me in touch with carers across the country.

The story is the same everywhere. We are an exhausted, undervalued and disposable workforce. The system is simply not working. Not for us, and not for the children in our care. That’s why we launched our all-party parliamentary group on foster care work in Westminster. We recently presented the foster care workers bill, which we hope will bring a series of proposals into law. Now is the time for real solutions to this real crisis.

The solutions have come from our members. The message of the Fostering Network report was loud and clear: the majority of foster care workers are unhappy with their employment status. We are denied all employment rights because we are not legally recognised as workers.

Employment rights are badly needed by foster care workers, to support our children and ourselves. Without whistleblowing protection, we cannot challenge actions that we know are not in the interests of the children without fearing for ourselves. Without a minimum wage, many of us live on the edge of poverty, paying for extracurricular activities for children out of our savings. Without sick pay, carers often continue through serious illness.