Debate contribution: Foster Carers

Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on 23 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Alan Chambers

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

23 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Foster Carers

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4485623

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I very much welcome the chance to speak on the topic of foster carers today. Foster carers are an incredibly important cohort of incredibly selfless and generous people in our society. Locally, foster carers provide truly invaluable support to so many children and young people right across Northern Ireland. Most importantly, they provide those young people with a stable and loving home in times of need. There is no such thing as a typical foster carer. They can be young or old, they can be raising a family of their own at the same time, their children may have already flown the nest, or, as is increasingly the case, they may not have had any children at all. Whatever the circumstances, for so long as a child is placed with them, they immediately become part of that family. Some carers offer short-term single placements, perhaps in times of crisis or to provide some relief for other carers, while others are, effectively, full-time foster carers, with multiple young people, perhaps with various levels of need. Overall, regardless of whom or how many they care for, fostering offers our carers an incredible opportunity to make a lasting impact on so many of our young people. The love, support and stability that foster carers can provide to just one child has the power to transform many lives for the better. I commend each and every one of them. Of course, it is not just rewarding for the young people. Over the years, I have spoken with many foster carers where their own delight and happiness with what they do is evident to see. My party colleague Robbie Butler has been very open in speaking of the joy, as well as that of his wife, that fostering children over the past 18 years has brought them. That joy will be replicated in many homes right across Northern Ireland. However, we also need to be honest and realise that fostering is not always easy. Although it can be highly rewarding, it can be highly challenging. It is also a significant commitment for any person or couple to undertake. That is why it is imperative that we, as an Assembly and Executive, do all that we can to support them. The issue of foster care allowances has, rightly, been raised today. It is deeply regrettable that there is not an equal level of support right across the UK. Foster carers matter as much in Northern Ireland as they do in Wales, England and Scotland. I know that local foster carers very much welcomed the direct support that the Minister was able to provide when he was last in post. However, they, like so many other people, have suffered as a result of the political and budgetary uncertainty over the past two years. Indeed, last year, as the cost-of-living crisis gripped so many homes and families, it was disappointing that only a limited increase in the foster care allowance could be provided. I appreciate that the Department of Health's hands were tied, especially in the context of such a dire budgetary position, but, ultimately, we, as MLAs, need to see such outcomes as a direct consequence of the failure of politics in this place. As I mentioned in the earlier debate on addiction and drug misuse, Ministers will shortly come together to try to agree broad Budget allocations for the rest of this year. If we, as parties, want to see important investments being made, such as the overdue uplift in foster care allowances, it is important that the Department of Health is awarded the finances necessary to deliver that. Nevertheless, whatever the outcome of the upcoming budgetary discussions, it is essential that foster carers receive support wherever and however they require it, for without them there would be many thousands of young people, both now and in the future, who would be much poorer off. In the meantime, I fully encourage anyone considering putting their name forward to be a foster carer to come forward and speak to any of the trusts or other bodies that stand ready to support them in whatever way they can.

690 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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