It is OK to hug children and take them for a haircut, foster parents told in new guidelines

FOSTER parents are to be told it is OK to hug children and take them for haircuts, according to new guidance.

The Department for Education (DFE) said that current information was not clear enough, leading carers to worry about showing affection and allowing children to socialise. In a report published in February, Sir Martin Narey, former chief executive of Barnardo’s, warned that foster parents were afraid to hug children in case they were accused of sexual abuse.

He said that the Dfe’s existing guidance was “silent on physical affection”, and said parents should not have to “curb natural instinct to demonstrate personal and physical warmth”. Some local authorities and independent fostering agencies had guidance that discouraged hugs, with one agency telling carers that “showing physical affection could be misinterpreted and put [children] at risk”.

New government guidance will make it clear that parents can “demonstrate personal and physical affection where this is right for the child”.

Responding to the report yesterday, the DFE also said foster parents would be “empowered” to make day-to-day decisions on issues such as haircuts, school trips and sleepovers.

In his report, Sir Martin said that in some cases, foster parents were having to approach social workers to get permission for school trips, sports and socialising, and they would then have to ask birth parents. He said this left children feeling “alienated and as if they can’t be trusted by their foster family”.

Short-term foster placements can last from a few days to several months, and the child often maintains contact with family members throughout, and can return to the family home at the end.

However, The Fostering Network charity said the plans “lacked teeth”. It said the Government had not adequately addressed the financial issues faced by foster parents, and did not put forward proper proposals to make sure local authorities dealt with allegations against foster carers properly.

Figures published by the DFE show that there were 53,420 children in foster placements in 2017, a figure that has been steadily rising since 2013, when it was 50,560. There has also been a fall in applications to become foster carers, with numbers going down by a third between 2015 and 2016, though they increased slightly in 2017.