Welcome to another week.
The government has unveiled plans to offer carers more support when looking after fostered children, while also preserving ties with birth families and their children after they have entered the care system.
According to the press release, the initiative aims to offer carers, “short breaks, mentoring, emergency sleepovers and social activities with other families to help create stability as they adjust to their new lives together.”
The support package has been inspired by The ‘Mockingbird Family Model’, which will be delivered by The Fostering Network and builds on an already invested £500,000 for support services for foster carers by the government. It is not clear how much extra money the government has injected into the original investment sum to provide these services.
The Model is explained on the Fostering Network’s website as an “extended family model which… improves the stability of fostering placements and strengthens the relationships between carers, children and young people, fostering services and birth families.”
The Network’s website also includes evaluation reports and plans for the model’s roll-out across the country.
In addition to this initiative, the Department for Education said it would allocate £84 million to new projects in 18 council areas which would “support vulnerable children coping with chaotic home lives as a result of their parents’ problems with mental health, domestic violence or addiction.” And, that the projects would “reaffirm the core principle of the Children Act 1989 that where possible, children are best brought up with their parents.”
No further details about how the Department intends to achieve this are included in the statement.
Researching Reform 
But this report provides extra help for fosterers and to hell with the birth parents………..
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It’s an absolute insult to parents, a spit in the face, it’s not right. Are these people ever going to get it right. My estimation to that question is probably not in our life time.
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I see little chance of this making any difference. The case I am involved with is not fostering but Special Guardianship, where the SG has ignored the court ordered contact and the court refuses to do anything about it. The government need to realise the the problem is inherently dangerous and corrupt. Until that is looked at in detail it will continue in the same manner. What needs to happen is not more money but a lot less. Where foster carers are doing the job because they wish to help, not for extra income. When I see adverts for foster carers with offers of £22,000 a year that just wrong, the system should not be dased on monetary reward, that attracts the wrong type. I agree they should be rewarded expenses but nothing more. After all if the child is left with their paren/s they have to manage, no extra £22,000 for them. It’s the money that brings the corruption.
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“SG has ignored the court ordered contact and the court refuses to do anything about it.”
this is a big problem that nobody in govt seems interested in. Children are being held like prisoners away from their birth family simply because it suits the selfish carer.
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Stop taking children from their birth parents to fuel this disgusting system.
Give the support and necessary financial help to the birth parents…. not the lucrative fostering and adoption business…. these incentives breed corruption.
The last sentence of this report is laughable “ re- affirming the core principle of the Children Act 1989 children are best brought up with their parents”. Hypocrisy at its finest!!
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Money is being thrown yet again at the wrong target! The money already spent on fostering shows such poor results for the children overall. Spending the money on keeping kids within their homes & supporting the families rather than fosterers would be better & the kids will be better off for it. Unfortunately the Mockingbird Family Model is just another money-making scheme for the benefit of those running it & those participating in the scheme. It’s not to help support birth families or ultimately their children.
Taking children away from their family & putting them in a care system harms them. Refusing contact with their family compounds the problem, that this scheme will not fix. Fosterers already admit to not wanting to deal with the birth families so contact will still be an issue.
So why prop up a failing system with more funding? Surely the government can do better but they do tend to think up projects that focus on promoting the Care System, the growing foster care industry & all the many spin offs. Whilst government money is being given to these projects it must be remembered that money is being generated too & those profits are high. Let us not forget that money returning to the government in taxes alone would fill quite a few piggy banks. Those that invest in these fostering companies pay investing individuals handsomely. I’ve heard lots of social workers, judges & MPs have already vested interests in that direction too. A clear conflict of interest!
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I note everyone’s points. However, what’s interesting here is the shift towards investing in birth families. It’s the first time we’ve seen a government press release acknowledging Court precedent which says children must be kept with birth families or reunited wherever possible. It’s a fascinating moment.
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Natasha,
I don’t think this model supports the birth family at all. This model supports foster carers & their retention. Whilst placements may be more stable, the evidence appears inconclusive that it is of benefit to the children overall. It’s questionable if this model would be the best way forward bearing in mind the latest research & court precedent concerning keeping children with their birth families or reunited if possible.
This model has been in operation since 2015.
The evaluation of the Mockingbird Family Model 2016 – assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
innovationcsc.co.uk was awarded £1.6 million to import the model from the US & adapt it for the UK.
It was supported & extended for 3 years with extra funding from the Innovation Programme. £500,000? Now £84 million has been awarded to roll it out.
The model is depicted on the Fostering Network
the fostering network.org.uk
Is there an up to date evaluation? I can only find the 2016 evaluation.
Has it shown a marked improvement for outcomes for the children involved or are they just running with it because it supports foster carers & they haven’t come up with anything else?
Where is the involvement of birth families? How many children have contact? How many children have been returned home? How has this model prevented children going into care in the first place?
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I wasn’t referring to the model, just the announcement.
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Funding going in the wrong direction as usual.
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Yep
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Trouble is if those changes are not incorporated into the model nothing will change.
Why can’t one of the hubs be the birth family? Why not have visits/ sleepovers there? Respite too or is that too radical?
The thing is I don’t think this model as it stands is worth the money invested unless it really will produce good outcomes for the child & that would mean involving the birth family, which it doesn’t currently. It seems a scheme for the benefit of fosterers rather than the children.
The Trowler Report recommended that families should be diverted from going to court & have No Orders but will anyone implement it? Until the risk adverse culture changes nothing will change.
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http://www.assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
http://www.inovationcsc.co.uk
http://www.thefosteringnetwork.co.uk
I hope these hyperlinks work.
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Are these people just demonic, or are they so sadistic that they thrive of human misery. Just bloody return children back to their families, and use that same money to help their families, then the world will be a happier place. It’s black and white, not rocket science.
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