Fostered children are being failed, with their mental and physical health taking the toll

The UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network, have warned that the mental and physical health, educational and cultural needs of children in foster care are not being met, in a new report.

Written by Bryony Porteous-Sebouhian

An already vulnerable group, children in foster care are living with poor mental health, but why?

The report, based on The Fostering Network’s State of the Nation’s Foster Care 2021 survey, has found that the state of the UK is ‘failing to meet its legal responsibility as a parent to these children.’

The report’s key findings are:

• ‘A quarter of foster carers were looking after at least one child who they felt needed mental health support but was not getting it. ?
• 54 per cent of foster carers were looking after at least one child who receives additional support to assist their learning. Of these foster carers, a quarter felt that the additional support was not sufficient. ?
• 13 per cent of foster carers reported having looked after a child with suspected FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder).?
• Nine per cent of foster carers reported having looked after a child with a diagnosis of FASD, however, only a third received follow-up support post-diagnosis.
• 55 per cent of foster carers had not received any support or advice around supporting a child’s cultural and/or religious needs.’

Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network has said that the UK is not honouring the UN convention on the rights of the child, which states that all children have a right to the best possible health, which includes mental health, and education.

When a child is taken into care by the state, whether that be a care home or foster care, the state becomes responsible for ensuring that basic right is upheld.

Williams said:

“Governments need to invest in awareness raising, training and therapeutic approaches. This is so practitioners across all public sector organisations that support children have the understanding and skills they need to best support children with care experience.”

Foster care can be an opportunity for a child to experience a positive family environment, sometimes for the first time. This positive experience can vastly improve a child’s mental wellbeing and their outcomes in education, leading to brighter prospects.

However, The Fostering Network adds a caveat to this. This experience is only possible when support from other services, such as mental health or neurodevelopmental services, are available to the child in foster care and the foster carers themselves.

Speaking to The Fostering Network, Matthew from London, who became a foster carer in 2021 told them he had been attempting to gain extra support in meeting the mental health needs of a child he was in care of. Matthew told the Fostering Network, that he felt those needs had not been fully disclosed by his local authority.

“My fostering service put me in touch with a child’s psychologist who helped give me the confidence to understand and deal with the young person’s behaviours. They gave me tips on how to do this, confirmed what I was already doing well and helped make sense of why they were acting in a certain way – this was largely due to trauma.” Matthew said.

Matthew then went on to describe how after accessing the support the child needed, they were able to open up about how they were feeling to him, and in turn better cope with the difficult emotions they had been experiencing.

“While I didn’t know the severity of my young person’s mental health needs, I was able to get the support we needed. This is not the case for everyone and there are huge pressures on the system. It is essential that our children's needs are both assessed and met.” Matthew concluded.

The report, unfortunately paints a rather different picture for most carers, who according to the survey, only one quarter out of the 3,352 foster carers who responded were currently receiving mental health support for their foster child. While a further 25% of respondents said they were currently looking after a child who needed mental health support, but not getting any.

Worryingly, the report also suggests that as many as half of all foster carers are looking after children who are presenting ‘complex mental health issues’, ranging from anxiety, depression, eating disorders to possible PTSD.

As the Fostering Network rightly pointed out in their press release for this new report, foster care can only function in the way it’s supposed to if other services, from healthcare, to education, social care and mental health can support carers and the children they look after. It is clear, from this report that a more ‘joined-up’ approach across services needs to quickly assemble, to ensure the complex needs of these children are not being neglected.