Can we stop perpetuating the myth that foster care is the magical solution in Childrens Services?
Can we stop equating out of home care with child safety?
Can we change the culture from ‘bad parents’ and ‘good foster carers’ which is all wrapped up in saviourism?
Can we stop already with this?
Can we do everything we can from day 1, to get naturally connected people around children who are at risk or in danger and get them to come up with
solutions before we offer or impose ours?
Lets ask …what proportion of agency/ government/ non government resources are allocated to recruit, assess and support foster carers compared to the resources allocated for clear and focused early intervention and exploring and supporting the naturally connected networks in a meaningful way - demonstrating that systems understand and support families first?
We know the more foster carers we have available the more children we will remove, the more beds in resi care, the more children we will place there, the more beds in juvenile detention the more children we will ‘lock up’ ….just stop already!
There will always be some children for whom there is not enough safety to be at home/ with family (I am NOT advocating for leaving children in dangerous contexts - our agenda is ALWAYS child safety)… And, when this is the case, and they are placed in stranger care, can we do everything in our power to get them back to the people they belong with as soon as we can, piling in support so the safety planning is sustainable over time?
If it happens that the child cannot ‘go home’ (when we, hand on heart, can say we tried as hard as we could get alongside the family to help them create rigorous and lasting safety) can we make sure we are doing everything, everything, everything we can to make sure children remain in close connection with their people, so they develop a strong sense of belonging? How about we recruit foster carers so this is integral to their role in our services? So they become part of the network enabling the kids to go home, supported. I know this is sometimes done brilliantly, but as far as I can see this is mostly situationally and person based, not as a direct strategy for increasing the safety of the child at home.
What we see most often in social media, in advertising and on shiny posters in community halls, is agencies advertising for foster carers, good news stories mostly involving foster carers, ‘successful’ placements’ promoted as though they are the norm, morning teas for foster carers, support groups for foster carers, provision of resources for foster carers. Can we (at a minimum) do the same for families and their networks? To set them up for success. And I don’t mean chuck in a stack of professional services!!!
How’s that for a paradigm shift? Seeing families as people truly worth doing business with. It will take wholesale system wide attention and commitment over time.
I heard a leader this week say (I’m paraphrasing now) “When we remove children we (hopefully) make them safe’ for a period of time - a year or two or a few years, but what the rest of their lives? How safe did we make them for the next 20, 30 or 40 years of their lives?” Such a powerful thought.
*I am not anti-foster care FYI, just anti removing children to strangers as if it fixes everything. I know some amazing foster carers who do everything they can to foster a strong sense of connection and well being.
If this position challenges you. Great!!! It is so good to feel that internal challenge. Stay with it and Interrogate why it is such a challenge for you. There is so much learning possible in that interrogation!
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