Debate contribution: Foster Carers
Debate contribution by Mrs Linda Dillon on .
- MLA
- Mrs Linda Dillon
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 23 April 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Foster Carers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4485627
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the sponsors of the motion for bringing it to the House today. As has been said, in the North, we have over 3,800 children in care, just over 3,000 of whom are with foster families. Like others, I acknowledge the value of those foster families, what they give to those children and young people and what they give to us, as a society. If they were not there, what would happen to those children? Where would they be and what harm would they come to or, potentially, cause because of what they were going through? Foster carers give value to every single one of us, and I want to acknowledge that. Very often, it is not just about the difference that they make to the life of the young person who stays with them; it is about the difference that they make to the lives of the entire family of the foster child because young people end up in foster care for myriad reasons. Sometimes, it is because of illness and temporary challenges in a family, and, very often, the foster carers are the vital cog that allows that family to remain together so that, when all is said and done, the child can go back home. We also know that children end up in foster care because they have experienced domestic violence, witnessed drug and alcohol misuse or been abused and neglected. For many children and young people, but certainly not all, fostering is their first positive experience of family life. It is an experience where, hopefully, they get the love and stability that they need for whatever time it is required. Professor Ray Jones's independent review of children’s social care services, which has been mentioned by a number of Members, has highlighted the rise in the number of children and young people who are going into care at a time when there are real challenges in supporting more families to become foster carers. As the motion points out, and as has been related to us by many of our constituents, we need to see proper financial support for foster and kinship carers. We are well aware that, given the current cost-of-living crisis, families who would like to be foster families are concerned about being able to adequately provide for the children and young people who are in their care. Foster care families have, as I said, given stable and safe homes to children at some of the most difficult times in their lives. From speaking to those who have been foster carers for many years, that is what drives them. They also say that their own family often benefits from the experience of the children and young people being in their homes. When I was a child — many, many years ago — I had close family members who were foster carers. I used to stay with them for the entire summer through choice, which shows how good they were. It was very easy to become attached to the children and young people who came to stay with them, and we did. That was because we genuinely loved them: we cared about them and wanted to make sure that they had a good outcome in their lives. Sometimes, it was hard to see them going back. Sometimes, their going back to their families was a great outcome. They may have been going back after a short illness in the family, or sometimes, in very large families, after a period when the mother just could not cope with the younger children. Those were really good outcomes, but, sometimes, you were worried about what they were going back to and wondered for many years whether they were OK. Hopefully, they got the support and ended up in good positions. We know that there is a lot of overlap and, when we talk about money and strategies, we need to think about that. There is a lot of overlap between the motion that we debated earlier on addiction and drug-related deaths and this motion, because children can end up in foster care because of alcohol and drug abuse in their homes and children who go through the care system can end up abusing alcohol and drugs. We need to look at how we can get a holistic approach, and that is something that we need to focus on. Money can be focused on the wrong things. We need to look at how we look after children from the very point that they are born because that is how we will — to put it bluntly — save money but also save lives and make lives better. That is where our focus needs to be. We certainly need to see a properly resourced recruitment programme, but, in addition to that, we need to see much more support for families. We need to see more social workers. We know — the Minister will be well aware of this — that some of our social work teams are running at 50% capacity. How can they possibly be expected to properly support families and properly support children into the right care settings?
We need to see more early intervention for families and more Step Up Step Down supports to prevent children from going into care in the first place. Foster families play an important role in that.
894 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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