Children & Young People In Care At Higher Risk Of Sexual Exploitation Report Finds

Children & Young People In Care At Higher Risk Of Sexual Exploitation Report Finds

Councils continue to fail in their duty to protect children from sexual exploitation by and within predatory gangs , a two-year investigation by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner has found.

The report which was published recently, was critical of Children's  Services for continually  failing to safeguard children and and whom it feels underestimate  the scale of sexual exploitation risk after finding only 6% of local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) are complying with key government guidance on tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Nearly all of the Safeguarding Children's Boards  said that child sexual exploitation is a strategic priority, but only 50% could say how many victims had been detailed within the last 12 months in the local area. Very public court proceedings in Derby, Oxford and Rochdale  highlighted the extent and scope of this type of abuse.

Although it  highlighted local examples of  positive practice, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner found a concerning dearth of  knowledge, practice and services required to address the needs of those experiencing Child sexual exploitation despite the higher public profile.

The report instead a different and fresh structure called  See Me, Hear Me, for those who design, manage or provide services in specific areas of  child protection. Developed with those who have experienced sexual exploitation, the structure emphasises professionals should  “focus relentlessly on the child”. Alongside the structure are  two other reports , which shine a light on  the risk to children and the complexities around their understanding of giving consent to sexual activity.

London Metropolitan University conducted extensive interview research with hundreds of young people and found worrying views about sexual activity and consent including the likelihood of young people, particularly females of absorbing guilt and shame if they are sexually exploited.

The University's evidence  the showed a worrying reality  of Sexual exploitation in gangs and groups and societal authority failing to tackle the hidden phenomenon of child sexual exploitation,  according to the  Deputy  Children's  Commissioner  for England.

Sue Berlowitz is championing a new world  in the culture of children’s services so victims’ needs are top of the agenda. The Office's  report ‘If only someone had listened’ tries to do this by providing a structure  for practitioners to use when designing or planning services. It is hoped that implementing the new anti-child sexual exploitation structure will achieve this.

The research has been widely welcomed in most sectors, but some have expressed concerns that austerity budgets and cuts to services will impede attempts to bring the structure into practice.

Source : Community Care Online

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New Year Honours: MBEs for Bedford foster parents

A couple from Bedford who have devoted 25 years to fostering children, many with physical or learning disabilities, have been made MBEs in the New Year Honours list.

Derek, 69, and Hazel Phillips, 67, have fostered about 25 children since they started in 1988.
Mrs Phillips said they decided to provide permanent foster care until their children become adults.
She praised her friends and family for supporting their work. "We couldn't have done it without them," she said.

'Different life'
The couple were made MBEs for services to children and families and their "total dedication to fostering and supporting vulnerable young people". Mrs Phillips said she hoped the honour and publicity would encourage others to consider taking up fostering. "To become a foster carer you must be someone who is prepared to open yourself up to this life and it is very different from ordinary family life," she said. "If you do the training and find this is something you can do, then you should do it and you will get a lot of support."

Another person appointed MBE was Roger Merton, 72, of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, for services to London Youth (the Federation of London Youth Clubs), football and the community in Hertfordshire.
He has spent 50 years supporting children and people with disabilities through football.

Others honoured are Irene Heathcote, 63, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, and Mabel Matthew, 74, from Luton, who were awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM). Mrs Heathcote has received the BEM for services to arts and crafts with Quilts4London which gave ordinary people the opportunity to become involved in the London 2012 Olympic Games by making pennants. Mrs Matthew receives the award for services to the St Kitts and Nevis Friends Association, which she has been involved in since 1984, and to the community in Luton.
source: BBC

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Foster children will be able to remain with foster carers

Foster children will be able to remain with foster carers  following a £40 million injection of funding and a new legal requirement on local authorities to provide support.
All children emerging from the care system will be able to remain with their foster carer families after they turn 18 following a £40 million funding injection and a new legal requirement on councils to provide support, which builds on previous initiatives to strengthen the mechanisms in place for care leavers.
Children’s  Minister Edward Timpson announced this week that he intends to place a new legal requirement  on children’s services to provide monetary support for every young person who wants to remain in their foster placement until their 21st birthday – allocating local authorities £40 million over the next 36 months to effect the necessary changes in time.
Edward Timpson, who grew up in a foster family with parents who fostered, feels that giving children and young people already vulnerable from being in care the right sort of support just as they are leaving care is crucial to their life chances.
A significant number of local authorities already give young people the chance  to stay but with little financial incentives, it can be testing for the foster families. Once enacted the new initiative will mean all councils will have to follow the national standard and we are allocating £40 million towards the costs.
This is a progressive  reform to the wider package of support and help  for care leavers, including changes to the procedures so eligible young people remain in care until they are ready to move out and much more effective financial help for young people leaving care at 18.
This will enable up to 10,000 young people leaving stable and secure foster placements  to transition from fostering to independence when they are ready, rather than when the corporate parent  requirements  them to.
Children in care usually have much lower educational attainment and are more likely than the general population to be out of education, work or training.
The initiative announced this week  is the latest in a series of changes the Coalition has  improved achievement  for children and young people leaving care.
Working in partnership  with Children’s Services, local authorities and third sector organisations , the Government feels it has effected the following changes :

• launched the ‘Charter for care leavers’ – an undertaking between councils  and young people emerging from care – which outlines the support they should expect  up to the age of 25, with many Children’s Services Departments signed up
• Brought in the Savings Account Initiative  for all children in care  with tens of thousands of accounts now being opened
• produced  the cross-government  strategy for care leavers, which holds together coherently the Government plan from housing to health care services, and from youth justice  to educational providers – and to help care leavers to live self- sufficiently once they have left their foster home
• Engaged with  all children’s services focussing on dramatic improvement to financial support for care leavers which has achieved a huge increase in  the number of local authorities now paying £2,000 or more through the Setting Up Home Allowance
• improved public transparency  by publishing an annual set, outlining statistics on care leavers’ educational and work status, and from this October 2013, Ofsted’s  children’s service inspection framework will focus more specifically  on the achievement and attainment of care leavers
• Brought in the pupil premium plus for all children in the care system from the first day of the fostering arrangement , raising the the school’s allowance  by £1,000
• Required every local authority  to put in place a ‘virtual school head’ – a professional tsar who campaigns for the education of looked-after children and acts as their overarching head in a corporate parenting capacity

Source : www.gov.uk

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Fostering - Ex-Liverpool star and foster parent Mark Wright in campaign

4 November 2013 Last updated at 19:12 GMT

The former Liverpool FC captain Mark Wright has launched a major campaign to recruit 10,000 new foster carers across the country.

Mark and his wife Sue have been fostering for five years, with the pair helping to promote the many rewards of becoming a foster carer.

During a launch at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium, he said the UK 10K scheme "will transform lives".

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Armagh foster care girl in Dame Kelly Holmes mentor scheme

24 October 2013 Last updated at 06:23

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Christina Lester met Dame Kelly Holmes at the end of the six-month mentoring scheme

Continue reading the main story

An Armagh teenager who has been in care most of her life is one of 20 children to complete a UK-wide mentoring scheme headed by Dame Kelly Holmes.

Despite her difficult background, Christina Lester has become head girl of City of Armagh High School.

The teenager has made a video which aims to challenge negative perceptions of foster care children.

"I've gained a lot of confidence through this programme and I'm just a happier person," she said.

"Now I actually think that I can do a lot more things with my life and I realise that you just have to work for it.

"I'm just so glad I got on it and I'm really proud that I did."

The six-month programme, organised by education charity AQA and the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, selects 20 teenagers who have encountered challenging personal circumstances and pairs them with athlete mentors.

With their mentor's help, they work on social action project in their local community to boost their confidence and personal skills.

Christina was mentored on the programme by former England hockey player Charlotte Hartley.

source: BBC News

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Adoption: Gay adoption 'confusion' for NI couples

There is uncertainty over the future of gay adoption in Northern Ireland, as Chris Buckler reports

A gay couple have said they went to England to adopt because of confusion over the law in Northern Ireland.

The Court of Appeal ruled that legislation which prevented gay, lesbian and unmarried couples from adopting children in NI was unlawful. It was the only part of the UK where the policy existed.

However, Stormont's health minister plans to go to the Supreme Court to try to overturn that decision and get the ban reinstated.

John Davis and Jason Scorer, who live in County Antrim, had hoped to adopt children from Northern Ireland, but with uncertainty over the legal position they were advised to consider other options.

"We were very lucky that our original social worker in Northern Ireland had done a lot of homework before she came, to say that we could not move things any further forward," said John, who has lived in Northern Ireland for 20 years.

"The problem is a lot of people may not be aware there is another option."

They contacted adoption and fostering charity PACT (Parents and Children Together).

It helped the couple, who are in a civil partnership, go through the process in England with the aim of giving children from there a home in Northern Ireland.

"There are children waiting in the system (in Northern Ireland) to find families but, unfortunately, we were not allowed to go down that route," said Jason.

"And that is to the hardship of the children who are here."

They adopted two boys at the start of the summer and they started primary school last month.

"They are getting loved, they are getting looked after and they are getting cared for," said John.

They say they know of other gay couples from Northern Ireland who are now considering going through the adoption process elsewhere in the UK, because the issue is still being debated in the courts.

The Department of Health at Stormont confirmed that Health Minister Edwin Poots has now applied to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision that the ban was discriminatory.

And he insisted the issue was about stability not sexuality.

"Unlike other parts of the UK... we have a strong list of adoptive parents who want to take on adopted children," said Mr Poots.

"I think we should be cautious about changing the system which actually provides the stability those children need.

"It is not a human right to adopt a child for either a mixed-sex couple or a same-sex couple."

Gay and lesbian groups, as well as organisations like BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering), have criticised the minister's decision to continue fighting the issue in the courts.

But he said surveys had shown support for his position.

"What I look at it is where the Northern Ireland public are on these issues and what is in the best interests of the children," he said.

"There is a lot of public opposition to it."

In Belfast, there were people with strong views on both sides of the argument.

Those against gay couples having the right to adopt argued that children needed both male and female role models and some claimed it was against their religious beliefs.

However, many said that the only important thing was providing a stable home for a child, irrespective of whether the couple were married or their sexuality.

"You could argue all day about the gay thing - whether it is right that someone who is gay should be gay," says John Davis.

"But I believe it goes back to the loving, caring environment and stability that you can give these children, that they have not had up to this point."

Source: BBC NI

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Foster care myths threaten crisis, claims charity

Misconceptions about fostering can deter would-be foster carers from coming forward, suggests a poll.

Myths about foster care are threatening a crisis in the service in the UK, a charity claims.

Some 10% of adults surveyed for Action for Children did not know fostering meant providing temporary care, confusing it with adoption.

And a large proportion believed those aged above 55, gay people, and men were barred from becoming foster carers.

“There is an urgent need to tackle these misconceptions,” said Darren Johnson, of Action for Children.

Figures produced by another fostering organisation have suggested at least 9,000 new foster families will be needed in the UK by the end of the 2013 to cope with record numbers of children in care.

Urgent need

The Fostering Network says there are now a record 61,700 children in foster care and with 13% of foster carers leaving the service each year there is an urgent need to recruit.

The Action for Children survey asked more than 2,000 adults about their attitudes to fostering.

One in three believed wrongly that you could not foster if you lived in rented accommodation.

A similar number were unaware that foster carers received financial support and wrongly thought they would be barred from foster care if they were not in full-time employment.

Many people also thought certain groups were barred from fostering – with 54% thinking over-55s were excluded; 16% that men could not foster and one in three that gay people would not be accepted.

An overwhelming proportion of those surveyed (96%) were unaware of the numbers in care in the UK – some 91,000 children.

‘Myth busting’

The charity has launched a myth-busting guide to fostering, hoping to encourage more people to provide temporary homes to children with family problems.

Mr Johnson said fear of rejection often led to delays in would-be foster carers volunteering themselves.

He added: “With myths preventing people from coming forward and the public not knowing the true extent of just how many children are currently in care, we are on course for a crisis.

“This could be prevented by helping people to understand that in the majority of cases they can foster and have a lot to offer a young person in care.”

Jackie Sanders, of the Fostering Network, said: “Fostering services face a big challenge every year, recruiting thousands of foster carers to replace those who leave and to provide homes for growing numbers of children coming into care.

“A wide pool of carers is needed to help fostering services find the right foster home for every child, first time.

“It’s important to bust myths about who can apply to foster, but it’s just as important to outline the skills that foster carers need, and to be clear about where there are current gaps.

“Across the UK there is currently a particular need to find people who can care for sibling groups, disabled children and teenagers.”

A DfE spokesman said: “Foster carers are the unsung heroes of the care system. They make an invaluable difference to vulnerable children – offering them routine, stability and loving homes.

“We want people from all walks of life to come forward to foster which is why are making it easier for them to do so. We are spending £750,000 to help councils recruit and retain a range of foster carers and have invested an extra £3.7 million to support vulnerable families and those already fostering.”

 Source: BBC 2013

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