Another day, another story celebrating high volume foster care in the news. On the face of it, it's just an innocuous human interest story about care.
It's not though, and here's why stories like this are a #GoodFirstAttempt but miss the mark entirely.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
It's not though, and here's why stories like this are a #GoodFirstAttempt but miss the mark entirely.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
First and foremost, there is no contribution from any of the children who were in their care.
So what happens is their stories get co-opted. Children's lives are reduced to one line anecdotes and reflections by adults who came and went from their lives. This is unfair.
So what happens is their stories get co-opted. Children's lives are reduced to one line anecdotes and reflections by adults who came and went from their lives. This is unfair.
It's highly unlikely that the children who lived there chose these people as their carers. Or choose to be in care at all.
This couple, however, chose to be foster carers and it's unfair that they use their privileged access to people's lives to tell stories to entertain people.
This couple, however, chose to be foster carers and it's unfair that they use their privileged access to people's lives to tell stories to entertain people.
Secondly, there's no critique of systems or exploration of how hundreds of children ended being passed to these adults for a short period of time then moved on. It's not a good thing.
No sense of where they went next, no sense of whether being there would have been avoidable.
No sense of where they went next, no sense of whether being there would have been avoidable.
There's only reflection from the carers in the lane of their heroic stoicism.
It's unrealistic and shallow to have them positioned as Calvanist robots. They'll have been paid a fortune in public money and gained materially from this endeavour.
It's unrealistic and shallow to have them positioned as Calvanist robots. They'll have been paid a fortune in public money and gained materially from this endeavour.
Ask about the outcomes for those hundreds of people, ask whether they consider themselves value for money, ask them whether they think this was the best the state could have done for the children they looked after.
Join it up with ongoing conversations about how children from families that experience poverty are more likely to be in care and subsequently adopted.
Make sure people know that the government reducing Universal Credit leads to stories like this existing.
Make sure people know that the government reducing Universal Credit leads to stories like this existing.
I think it'd also be pretty alienating to be a family who has fostered a small number of people over a long period of time and read this kind of thing.
The value of fostering to society has nothing to do with how many children people look after.
The value of fostering to society has nothing to do with how many children people look after.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
