Campaigns Blog July 2017

A sunny welcome to the latest news from the campaigns team at The Fostering Network. While Theresa May’s ‘snap’ election may not have gone completely to plan for her, it has provided us with a clutch of new MPs to inform about the great work that foster carers do. If your local constituency changed hands in June, why not fire off a letter or phone call to your new MP and introduce yourself as a foster carer? Now is a great time to visit them in their surgery or invite them along to a local foster care support group or Foster care association meeting. If you’d like to talk about some of the important issues facing foster care at the moment, our manifesto may be of help.

The election also saw the departure of England children’s minister Edward Timpson, who had been a fine advocate for foster care – not least due to his own family background. We extend a warm welcome to his replacement at the Department for Education, Robert Goodwill. Mr Goodwill does not have the same background in fostering as his predecessor and the remit of the role has been expanded, and with this in mind we have already been in touch with him to set out what we think his fostering priorities should be. We urge you to join us in this work by emailing the minister: find out more.

Our charter campaign is now in full swing, and we’re delighted that already we are hearing from fostering services across Britain that are keen to adopt their own charter. We are sending poster-sized copies of the charter to all fostering services – local authority and independent – in England and Scotland. In Wales the charter implementation framework is ready for launch. Check out the coverage in England on our map on the campaign page. If you would like a poster copy of the charter to help with your own dialogue with your fostering service, please get in touch.

The Department for Education’s fostering stocktake has survived the general election. Our detailed submission is available to read – bear in mind it’s 12,000 words long, but we felt that this was such a unique opportunity to shape the future of foster care in England for a generation, there was nothing we wanted to leave out!

Meanwhile in Scotland the Government is calling for submissions to the care review. If you are a foster carer in Scotland, please take part.

As ever if you have any questions or ideas for our campaigns team then do get in touch on campaigns@fostering.net / 020 7620 6416.

Vicki and Rob