The foster care system is facing collapse and that will just mean private companies make even more profits from looking after vulnerable young people instead, one of Bristol's leading foster carers has warned.
John Stokes has cared for more than 70 children and young people as a foster carer across Bristol and South Gloucestershire in a career that spanned four decades.
But he said the system is at breaking point because foster carers don't get the support they need. And the result is young people in care will be housed in privately-run care homes for profit-making companies.
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Mr Stokes spoke out after a huge survey of foster carers, by the advice network Foster Talk, revealed that 43 per cent of foster carers were considering leaving the foster care service in the next two years - because the cost-of-living crisis is making it increasingly unviable for people to take in vulnerable children and young people.
He said he's turning 70 years old in the next year and preparing to retire. But because foster carers aren't employed - they just receive an allowance for each child they look after - he faces an uncertain financial future.
"I have been in foster care for over 30 years during which time fostering has survived many crises," he said. "Recruitment and retention of foster carers has been a constant battle and, at best, has been like treading water for local authorities never really able to get enough carers to meet the demand. However, with the current cost of living crisis, inflation and energy rises, foster care faces its biggest ever challenge," he added.
"Even though this is a new report from Foster Talk, it would be fair to say that with the speed of the advance of the cost of living crisis that figure of 43 per cent leaving has probably already worsened.
"Foster carers are mostly self employed and have little in the way of job protection or negotiating power in campaigning for increased fees or allowances to cover the children's needs and their own costs. Mortgages and rents are rising fast alongside food, clothing, energy and transport costs and allowances given towards the children's costs are increasingly inadequate. Many carers receive a small mileage allowance for transporting children to and from school and to other appointments, allowances that fall pitifully short with the increased fuel costs.
"Holiday costs for foster carers are rocketing but holiday allowances are not. Most carers also need respite breaks from looking after particularly challenging children, but being self-employed we get no holiday pay so have to forgo any wages for those breaks, meaning many carers do not take them even when they need them. The extra burden this places on already stressed carers is not good for the carers or for the children that they care for," he added.
Local authorities across the country, including Bristol and South Gloucestershire's have a foster carer support service, and are continually trying to recruit new foster carers, but with swingeing cuts in the money local authorities receive from central Government, foster care has always been a 'Cinderella service', relying on people taking in vulnerable children as a vocation, rather than because they can make a living out of it.
"For many years across the country expectations of what foster carers should provide has increased, but has not been matched by increases in fees or allowances," explained Mr Stokes. "The goodwill of foster carers has been tested, used and abused for too long in the opinion of many carers like myself. The well of goodwill has run dry for many of us, and the growing drought of foster carers will only get worse," he added.
And when there is a shortage of foster carers or people hoping to adopt children in care, the children still need looking after. Local authority-run children's homes are a thing of the past - but have been replaced by private sector foster care and residential homes, run by private companies that have been the subject of many TV investigative documentaries, Ofsted and CQC reports.
"The increase in private sector foster care and residential homes, who make huge profits for their shareholders, has meant that the percentage of revenue that goes into private hands - and especially to offshore companies has vastly increased. This is money that should be invested in our children and our carers, rather than being paid out to shareholders and on inflated executive salaries and bonuses," said Mr Stokes.
"Next year I am 70 and as a self employed carer I have nothing of substance to show for a lifetime of caring. There is no work pension and no pay-off or redundancy available, just a state pension. It’s a pretty bleak outlook in these troubled times, but nothing compared to the future facing so many children in the care system that will soon face a critical shortage of carers and will necessitate more care homes. I have no doubt that they will mainly be run by the private sector, who will be the only ones likely to profit from the crisis.
"Unless urgent action at Government level is taken to address the potential collapse of the foster care system then I think it unlikely that it will recover for many years to come. In its present form, it will just become unsustainable," Mr Stokes added.
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