Robert Brown welcomes fostering and adoption week

12.00.00am GMT Fri 22nd Jan 2010

Glasgow MSP Robert Brown has welcomed fostering and adoption week by lodging a motion in the Scottish Parliament congratulating the work of Barnardo's Scotland Fostering service in Glasgow.

18th to 24th January is Fostering and Adoption Week, which aims to raise awareness of fostering and adoption work so that more carers and adoptive families can be found for the thousands of children who desperately need them.

With a national UK shortage of 10,000 foster carers, and applications for children to be taken into care on the rise in recent months, Robert Brown is calling for more people to consider fostering to help vulnerable children in care.

In the Glasgow area, foster families are especially required to deal with an increase in looked after children in residential homes over the last few years.

Fostering can be a short-term way of offering a child a home until they can return to their own parents but the length of time children can stay with a foster family can vary from weeks to months or years.

Foster carers have a vital role to play in giving children in care the best possible start in life.

Anyone can apply to become a foster carer as long as they have the qualities, skills and experience required to look after children in care.

A poll by Barnardo's recently stated that eight out of ten people have never considered fostering.

Robert Brown said:

"A small proportion of children suffer really appalling starts in life with their own parents - unfortunately chronic child neglect and maltreatment is still a major challenge.

"All the evidence shows that being placed at the right time with foster parents can make a huge difference and children in this position a much better chance of a successful and happy life.

"Organisations like Barnardo's exist to support abused or neglected children and to help find fresh homes for them.

"The huge shortfall of foster carers really is a crisis - it is vital that stable and secure foster placements are available.

"It's quite frightening that the Fostering Network recently calculated that Scotland needs an extra 1,700 foster carers.

"However, it's not always the case that a fostered child is necessarily in danger - it may be that mum or dad is in hospital or is just unable to look after the child for a short while, in which case fostering would be short term and only after any other family support was ruled out.

"Whatever the reason, there has been a big increase in demand for foster parents in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, with a rise in the number of children placed in residential homes.

"That's why the work of Barnardo's is so crucial. They find placements for children under the age of 13 with emotional or behavioural difficulties, who are always very vulnerable.

"Some people might be put off, but it really can be a rewarding experience for others. It is not something to be done without preparation and full training, support and help is always given.

"Supporting and providing security for an at-risk child could end up saving their life - and certainly transforming their future - and is one of the best and worthwhile things anyone could ever do in our society,"

ends

Notes to editors:

Parliamentary motion:

Barnard's Scotland Fostering and Adoption Week - That the Parliament notes that the Fostering Network has calculated that Scotland needs an extra 1,700 carers; notes research from Barnardo's indicating that people in Scotland are the least likely to consider fostering and that a perceived lack of training and support is the most common reason for this; recognises the dedication of Scotland's foster carers; believes that fostering not only provides a loving home for some of the most vulnerable children in Scotland but can also be immensely rewarding to those who foster; welcomes the launch of Barnardo's Scotland Fostering and Adoption week on the 18th January as one of a range of initiatives that will encourage more Scots to consider fostering; and congratulates Barnardo's Scotland Fostering service in Glasgow for the work it does in finding placements for children under the age of 13 with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and for the training and support it offers foster carers and potential foster carers.