The Fostering Network welcomed today’s announcement of a £4 million package for foster and kinship cares in Scotland. The money will be spent on a range of initiatives including a £1,000 training allowance for each fostering household, national guidelines for dealing with abuse allegations and guidelines to boost recruitment.
Bryan Ritchie, director of the Fostering Network Scotland, said: "The funding is a positive step towards creating a world-class fostering service in Scotland. The training allowance will ensure foster and kinship carers are much better equipped to transform the lives of children in their care.
"The national guidelines for dealing with abuse allegations are extremely important. People who work with children are always in danger of having allegations made against them, and foster carers are at particular risk as they work unsupervised and often alone with some very damaged children. While it is crucial that all allegations are fully investigated, experience shows that many are unsubstantiated. If fostering services want foster families to feel able to continue with fostering after an investigation is completed, they must offer them proper financial and practical support during that time and must speed up their investigations.
"The introduction of recruitment guidelines are very welcome and will go a long way in helping to tackle the chronic shortage of foster carers in Scotland."
The Scottish Executive will publish the Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy this autumn. The Fostering Network will be campaigning for a limit on numbers of children placed with foster carers and a central registration scheme. Both these will help to ensure that all children and young people who are fostered in Scotland receive the very best possible care.