The care system is facing major challenges as the number of looked after children rises and retiring foster carers are not replaced fast enough, warns Children's Minister, Tim Loughton.
Mr Loughton has urged fostering services not to be blinkered when considering who has the capacity to foster and to reach out to a wider pool of potential carers – able to help the increasingly challenging needs of children coming in care.
He argued that there will be a rising turnover of foster carers over coming years, caused in part by an aging workforce – the vast majority are already in their late forties to mid-50s. He said without younger and skilled foster carers coming forward, the current shortfall of carers will only grow.
The Fostering Network said last week that an extra 8750 foster carers are needed across the UK this year alone. The Network said that three out of five fostering services are “desperately seeking foster carers”; and that 98 per cent were looking for more foster families for teenagers than last year.
You can read more on this story and view related resources here: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00209325/fostering-services-need-to-reach-out-to-wider-range-of-carers
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