Section 1: Background to the review
In the summer of 2016 the government announced a national ‘stocktake’ of fostering in England to reach a better understanding of the current system and where improvements can be made. This review was commissioned to inform the stocktake and was intended to bring together quantitative and qualitative research to contribute to an overview of the fostering system by:
- providing a brief, high-level description of the current fostering system including how it operates and the impact of foster care on the children placed with foster carers
- reviewing what works and where improvements could be made to improve outcomes for children
- reviewing the quality of the evidence and identify gaps in the evidence base to provide a deeper understanding of the foster care system and what works and for whom.
To cover these areas a rapid scoping review has been undertaken of the published and grey literature, 2 supported by 23 interviews conducted with key individuals in the sector, including those working in local authorities and independent fostering agencies, researchers and umbrella bodies. The interviews were conducted to provide a broader and contemporary perspective in which the literature could be contextualised and, as described below, because of the limited timescales these could not be as comprehensive as would be the case in a research study of each of the areas covered in the review.
The following research questions guided the review:
- how the fostering system operates, including
- commissioning and the cost of placements
- the interconnection between the fostering system and other types of care recruitment and retention and training of the foster care workforce
- how the team around the child operates
- foster care placements in terms of decision making, capacity, support for the child/young person moving in and out of placements, and the stability and quality of placements
- foster carers and their families, including motivation and retention
- experiences of and outcomes for children and young people who are fostered
- experiences of birth families
- availability and usefulness of data
- gaps in the evidence.
The debate over whether too few or too many children are being taken into the care of local authorities was beyond the scope of this review. In recent years there has been an argument that more children should be separated from birth parents at an earlier age to avoid leaving them in homes where they may be abused and/or neglected. The case has also been made that while some children will require protection by separation many more would be able to stay with their families if effective support was in place. These are not necessarily contradictory views but do raise important questions. In light of what is now known from developmental psychology and neuroscience about early damage and the benefits of early placement, how do professionals distinguish between those infants and young children who need to be separated from parents who are unable to change and those whose parents can change with help? This continues to be a contested area which requires robust, longitudinal research because the decisions taken have life changing consequences for children, their birth families and those might who foster them.
