CALL TO FIX ‘BARBARIC’ SYSTEM TO SAFEGUARD FOSTER KIDS

FOSTER carers are demanding urgent help to protect themselves and the children they look after if they become ill. A union is calling for foster carers to be paid Statutory Sick Pay if they are ill and unable to look after the children temporarily in their care.

Representatives said the current crisis has highlighted a problem in the benefits system for foster carers.

They fear that if a foster carer becomes ill during the coronavirus pandemic then children would be removed from their care and they would have no money coming in.

The Foster Care Workers branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is calling on the government to introduce urgent measures to ensure local authorities and independent fostering agencies respect the right of foster care workers to keep their families and the children in their care as safe as possible during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to provide the financial support necessary for them to do this.

They say the guidelines could separate children from carers and leave some facing poverty unless they are given help.

Jane Wright, chair of the Foster Care Workers branch of the IWGB, said: “During a time of crisis, those caring for the most vulnerable must be treated with respect.

“Foster care workers immense pressure.

“We are still being asked to take children out of self-isolation and with no rights and no government support, many face destitution if we develop symptoms and self-isolate.

“If Covid-19 separates a child from their foster parent who then can’t pay their bills, where is that child going to go home to?

“The additional, unnecessary trauma being forced on care-experienced young people and their carers is barbaric and it’s putting lives at risk.”

Allowances for foster carers to cover the cost of looking after a child vary across the UK and within Scotland.

A survey by the are under

Fostering