Foster care
On 14 March 2018 at 9:30am, there will be a Westminster Hall debate on Foster Care. The Member sponsoring the debate is Bill Esterson MP.
This debate pack draws upon the independent review, Foster Care in England – A Review for the Department for Education by Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers (February 2018). The report built on the National Stocktake on Fostering – in effect a call for evidence the results of which were published alongside the review. This paper also uses the Education Select Committee’s report, Fostering (December 2017), which also focusses on the situation in England. The Department for Education (DfE) has said that its responses to these reports will be published in spring 2018.
The term “fostering” can apply in different child-related contexts – for the purposes of this paper, “fostering” means local authority fostering of a looked after child. As fostering is a devolved policy area in the UK, this paper will focus on the situation in England.
For further information, see the Library paper, Key issues in fostering (July 2017).