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CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.1.1 According to the British Association for Adoption & Fostering, fostering is a way of providing a family life for children who cannot live with their own parents. Fostering is often used to provide temporary care while parents get help sorting out problems, take a break, or to help children or young people through a difficult period in their lives. Often children will return home once the problems that caused them to go into foster care have been resolved and when it is clear that their parents are able to look after them safely. Others may stay in long-term foster care, some may be adopted, and others will move on to live independently 1.
1.1.2 In Scotland there are over 3,700 children and young people in foster care. This figure does not include those looked after by friends or relatives, commonly known as 'kinship care' where the main full-time care arrangement is provided by a member of the child's extended family or wider network of friends 2.
1.1.3 On 6 th December 2006 a plan was launched, in Edinburgh by Education Minister Hugh Henry, which will shape foster and kinship care in Scotland over the next 20 years. The 'National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy' has been drawn up with the help of experts from groups including the Fostering Network, children's charity Barnardo's, the Association of Directors of Social Work, NCH, local government body CoSLA and foster and kinship carers 3. This builds upon recent work undertaken, including Extraordinary Lives by the Social Work Inspection Agency, the Executive's Proposals for the development of integrated services, Getting it Right for every Child, the 21 st Century Social Work Review, Changing Lives, Hidden Harm: The next Steps.
1.1.4 This Strategy will address the specific needs of those children who need to live away from home and from their birth parents in foster and kinship care, either by way of a compulsory supervision requirement or a voluntary arrangement. As part of the development of this strategy, the Scottish Executive launched a consultation seeking to identify the key issues for consideration to ensure that all fostered children and young people, and those cared for by relatives, are given the safe, stable and secure environment that they need. More specifically, the consultation paper considered:
- The specific needs of children and young people for whom the option of living with a foster carer or kinship carer is in their best interests;
- The improvements that could be made in supporting foster and kinship carers to enable them to meet the needs of the child or young person;
- The way forward for fostering services and kinship care arrangements more broadly;
- Views on how these needs can be met.
1.1.5 The consultation also sought views on how to best achieve a fundamental and long-term transformation of fostering services and kinship care arrangements to ensure they are fit to tackle the challenges that will be faced over the next 20 years.
1.1.6 In January 2007, George Street Research was commissioned to analyse and report on responses to the consultation. This reports details the key themes identified from the 111 responses received to the consultation by 10 th April along with findings from the 16 events run by the Fostering Network.
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