News articles relating to our fostering support services that WillisPalmer operates nationwide through a diverse team of around 300 qualified social workers, all of whom have a minimum of seven years post-qualifying experience; 20 years on average.
Siblings in foster care should be placed together where possible, MPs urge
Measures need to be stepped up to ensure foster children are placed with their siblings where possible, MPs have warned.
Publishing a report into fostering, the education select committee said that “efforts need to be redoubled” to place children with their siblings.
“One issue that is close to the hearts of many young people is that of [...]
Adopted children 20 times more likely to be excluded
Adopted children are 20 times more likely to face a permanent exclusion from school than their peers, research has revealed.
A survey by the charity Adoption UK also found that adopted children are more likely to be temporarily excluded and many receive no learning during their exclusion period.
Becky White, Adoption UK’s schools development officer and the [...]
Fostering inquiry resumes
The Education Select Committee’s inquiry into fostering has been resumed from the previous Parliament and will take further evidence next week.
The inquiry was launched by the previous Education Committee in October 2016, and has previously covered issues including the capacity of the foster care system, working conditions for foster carers, and the roles and [...]
Adopter gap closed, says ALB
There are now more adoptive families than children waiting for adoption, according to the Adoption Leadership Board.
Figures from the ALB suggest that the ‘adopter gap’ has closed, however, there were still 1,770 children with a placement order not yet matched.
The number of children adopted from care has fallen slightly from 1070 in the first quarter [...]
Recruitment and retention of foster carers still biggest challenge in system
The children’s system will be jeopardised unless the government secures the future recruitment and retention of enough, high-quality foster carers, a report has warned.
While recruitment and retention of foster carers is not a new issue, it remains the biggest challenge in the fostering system, the report commissioned by the Department for Education found.
“In England, there [...]
Fostering stocktake offers a great opportunity to improve services for children
By Mark Willis
Following its call for evidence, the Department for Education is now poring over the submissions of all those who contributed to the fostering stocktake over the past few weeks.
The stocktake aims to gather evidence, inter alia, on what works best in fostering settings to improve outcomes for children, what improvements could be [...]
