Foster carers from all over the country descended on Westminster yesterday to urge their MPs to put pressure on the Government to enable young people in care in England to stay with their foster families until the age of 21.
The mass lobby took place to coincide with the second reading of the Children and Young Persons Bill in the Commons. Currently, young people can only stay with their foster carers until they are 18, at which point funding ceases and they are often expected to live on their own. While some foster carers are able to offer homes to young people on a longer-term basis for free, this is often not possible for those who have given up other jobs to foster and who therefore rely on their fostering income. The average age at which those who grow up with their own families leave home is 24.
Children’s minister Kevin Brennan spoke to a packed meeting of foster carers, together with shadow minister for children and families Tim Loughton and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for children Annette Brooke. The minister announced the location of 10 pilot "Staying Put" projects to trial the concept of young people staying with their foster carers until they are 21. The three-year pilots will take place in Bristol, Cheshire, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, the London Borough of Merton, North Tyneside, Warwickshire, City of York and North Yorkshire, at a cost of £4.5 million.
The Fostering Network had called on the Government to make an immediate commitment to offering all young people the option to stay with their foster carers until they are 21, believing there is sufficient evidence from similar schemes in Northern Ireland and some English local authorities to remove the need for more pilot projects.
Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said: “Many young people in care are forced to live on their own before they are ready, due to lack of local authority support. Without significant personal sacrifices from foster carers, many others would face the same fate.
“This is just not good enough. Research and experience show that the longer young people stay with their foster carers, the better they do later on. Children facing the prospect of leaving care soon cannot afford to wait another three years for action. We need a commitment from the Government to ensure all children in care have the option to stay with foster carers until they are 21, and we need it now.”
The minister also committed to looking into the issue of payments for foster carers undergoing an investigation into an allegation at the committee stage of the Bill.