7. Memorandum submitted by
the British Association for Adoption and Fostering
1. ABOUT THE
BRITISH ASSOCIATION
FOR ADOPTION
AND FOSTERING
The British Association for Adoption and Fostering
is the leading charity and membership organisation in fostering
and adoption in the UK. We:
— promote the highest standards of
child-centred policies and services for children[3]
separated from their families;
— influence UK-wide policy and legislation;
— provide information and advice to
members, governments and the general public;
— promote greater public understanding
of adoption and fostering; and
— support our members in their work.
BAAF's main activities are the development, promotion
and advocacy of best policy and practice; the provision of advice
and information to our members and to the general public; training,
consultancy and seminars; child placement services including the
publication of our flagship monthly newspaper, Be My Parent. We
also publish a quarterly professional journal, Adoption and
Fostering, books and guides for professionals, academics,
parents and carers and research studies. The main users of our
services are our members comprising local authorities across England,
Scotland and Wales, voluntary adoption agencies, independent fostering
agencies and also individual social work, legal and medical professionals
and carers. We are currently developing our service to Northern
Ireland and have appointed a Northern Ireland Director.
2. PRIVATE FOSTERING
BAAF have a longstanding interest and very actively
campaigned for the introduction of a registration and approval
system for private foster carers; it is our view that a requirement
to simply notify private fostering arrangements is insufficient
to protect children. BAAF has convened a private fostering special
interest group of practitioners who work in the area of private
fostering for many years to support their role and to assist us
to identify the improvements needed. This group has been instrumental
in bringing stakeholders together to share views and making recommendations
about best practice.
BAAF actively campaigned for the inclusion of changes
in relation to private fostering in the Children Act 2004, most
particularly the establishment of a registration scheme. We were
pleased that some measures were introduced but disappointed that
registration was only the subject of a sunset clause. BAAF was
awarded the tender by the Department of Education and Skills to
undertake the development of draft minimum standards and to write
a guide to assist local authorities in their duty to raise awareness
of the need to notify private fostering arrangements as laid out
in section 44 of the Children Act 2004 which came into force on
1 July 2005.
3. UNACCOMPANIED
ASYLUM SEEKING
CHILDREN
BAAF is in the fifth year of two consecutive projects
to develop policy and practice in respect of unaccompanied asylum
seeking children. The project has published a Guide for social
workers on assessing and planning—Food, Shelter and Half
a Chance, a selection of stories from unaccompanied Children—I
Didn't Want to Come Here and two Training Manuals, one for
Social Workers and the second for Foster Carers.
BAAF's interest in private fostering has focussed
on both the position of children with UK citizenship and children
whose parents live overseas and send them to live with friends
or distant relatives in the UK, as well as children from abroad
who may be placed in private foster care arrangements by adult
foreign nationals with visitor, work or student visas. The current
scheme for private fostering covers children placed by foreign
nationals and there is nothing to bar such placements provided
they meet current regulatory provisions. Children placed by foreign
nationals must accompany them when they leave the UK unless an
application is made to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
before the current leave expires.
BAAF has a number of concerns about the current system
that partly results from the private fostering regulations and
partly from immigration.
4. PRIVATE FOSTERING—BAAF'S
CONCERNS
4.1 The system of notification of a "private
fostering arrangement" in itself is reasonably robust but
it is compromised because there are strong disincentives to making
a notification. From a private foster carer's point of view they
may see that they have very little to gain by complying with regulations
or engaging with the local authority, particularly if they tend,
perhaps as a result of previous experience or because of concerns
about their immigration status, to mistrust statutory authorities.
Although support, guidance and assistance may be made available
to the private foster carer or to the child or the child's parents,
the thresholds for actual service provision may be very high.
Private foster carers may also run the risk of being prohibited
whether they are proposing to become a private foster carer or
where they are currently fostering a child privately (section
69(1), Children Act 1989).
4.2 In the year ending 31 March 2005, there were
730 notifications made to local authorities of children privately
fostered in England. 68% of these children were aged 10-15 and
18% were born in Africa or Asia. Although any system will take
time to become fully operational, these figures compare very unfavourably
with a conservative estimate that, in 1991, there were 8-10,000
privately fostered children. It might be safely assumed that figures
will increase in time as the requirements to notify become more
widely known but serious concerns remain about whether the notification
system is robust enough given the disincentives, and as a result
there are almost certainly a large number of children whose needs
may well not be met and some who are not properly safeguarded.
4.3 Local authorities are required to raise local
awareness of the need to notify but a national awareness raising
campaign (as accompanied the introduction of registration of child
minders) would have a much greater likelihood of success.
4.4 The notification system itself may also be
compromised by a lack of expertise in some local authorities about
the position and needs of children who are privately fostered.
This may be particularly the case where children are foreign nationals.
4.5 Although the Guidance in relation to private
fostering says that social workers should satisfy themselves about
a child's immigration status and its legality, and consult with
IND where there are doubts, these are just the kinds of situations
where there is a strong disincentive for a private foster carer
to notify.
4.6 In 2003, the Social Care Institute of Excellence
undertook an evaluation of whether the introduction of the registration
of child minders had been successful and to assess the benefits
and disadvantages of applying registration to privately foster.
The results were unequivocally in favour of registration.
4.7 There continues to be a lack of understanding
by many staff working within education and health as to what private
fostering is and what notification requirements mean. Professionals
within these services are also concerned about reporting private
fostering arrangements of which they become aware because of concerns
about breach of confidentiality. There is no duty in the legislation
on health and education to cooperate and to notify the local authority
if they believe a child is being privately fostered.
5. BAAF'S CONCLUSIONS
5.1 That the requirement to notify in relation
to a private foster care arrangement is not sufficiently robust
because there is a strong disincentive to comply, the sanctions
for non-compliance are weak and the gains for the private foster
carer, birth parent and the child are marginal.
5.2 Notification is widely misunderstood by the
public whereas a requirement to register and to be approved as
suitable would give a clear and unequivocal message about the
necessity to do this.
5.3 That children who may be most at risk are
those who are most likely to be hidden.
5.4 That there is insufficient expertise in the
children's workforce about the needs of children who are foreign
nationals who are separated from their birth parents.
5.5 That there is a lack of understanding of
private fostering amongst health and education staff and that
confidentiality constrains sharing of information which can safeguard
children.
6. BAAF'S RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 That the inspection of private fostering
due to be undertaken this year by the Commission for Social Care
Inspection should have as one of its objectives to report on whether
a registration system would better protect children and in that
case, section 45 of the Children Act 2004 should be enacted.
6.2 That a programme of specialist training for
local authority social workers, teachers and health workers on
the nature of private fostering, the welfare issues of privately
fostered children and the requirements of the current notification
system be commissioned and delivered. In particular the risks
to and needs of children who are not U.K. citizens should be highlighted.
6.3 That local Safeguarding Boards give urgent
attention to the needs and welfare of children in their area who
are privately fostered. In addition where children are not U.K.
citizens and have limited leave to be in the UK and are privately
fostered, additional measures should be taken to safeguard their
welfare.
7. IMMIGRATION—BAAF'S
CONCERNS
The purpose of immigration checks is to validate
the identity and status of the person entering the UK and that
the reason for their visit is compliant with the immigration rules.
The welfare of any child at the point of entry and during their
stay is not a primary immigration concern if their visit complies
with the rules.
There are however, a number of situations where a
foreign national child either at the point of entry or subsequently
is or becomes a "separated child". BAAF subscribes to
the view that their formal status or the reasons that they have
become separated is less important than the fact that they are
separated from their birth parents or legal/customary guardians.
The Separated Children in Europe Programme[4]
identifies that these children are at risk from serious and long
lasting psychological and social harm because their primary carer
is not present or available.
There are a number of reasons that foreign national
children become "separated children":
— Those unaccompanied by any adult
who then make an asylum claim.
— Those that are accompanied by a
principal carer who intends to place them in the care of others
while they work or study. Some of these arrangements may be satisfactory
and comply with current regulation but others may not. The circumstances
of the carer may change during their stay and a previously satisfactory
situation for the child becomes an "at risk" situation.
— Those who are accompanied by a "relative"
who is not their principal carer. Some of these carers will plan
to care for the child but then circumstances change and they cannot
adequately do so. Others have no intention of caring for them
once in the country and will abandon them or hand them over to
other adults.
— Those that are accompanied by adults
not known to them for reasons of exploitation.
— Those whose parents or principal
carers have made an asylum claim and reside in another country.
— Those that are sent to the UK for
education or for health treatment.
— Those whose parents' asylum claim
is refused, do not comply with the requirement to leave the UK
and where then the parents' right to any support is withdrawn
and the child becomes "looked after". (Section 9, Asylum
and Immigration Act 2004)
It is important to note that in many of the circumstances
described above, the adult carers of these children will be in
stressful and precarious situations themselves due to previous
experiences before entering the UK and because of their status
and position while in the U.K. Whatever their intentions to care
for the child, they may not have the resilience or resources to
care for them adequately unless appropriate support services are
made available. It is equally important to note that some adults
have no intention to care for the child at all and bring them
to the UK for the purpose of exploitation.
Children may be in the UK because they are fleeing
persecution and in that sense may "wish to be here".
Others may have been brought here against their will.
In any of these circumstances, children may become
the responsibility of the local authority especially if they have
the status of an unaccompanied asylum seeking child. Some may
become notified to the local authority where they are privately
fostered. Others may become known to education or health or other
public services although their precise circumstances, status and
welfare may be unclear.
There are other children who are unknown or disappear
because they are:
— trafficked children or young people
where the plan is that they enter the UK for domestic or manual
labour, the sex industry or other reasons that put them at significant
risk; and
— children who disappear after making
an asylum claim or when their claim fails or children who are
abandoned by their carers who leave the UK.
Because these children easily fall outside the regulatory
system of immigration control and the children's welfare system,
they easily become "invisible". Ascertaining their status
and needs at any point where they do enter the system—through
school or health—can be very difficult. The problem was
widely debated by Lord Laming in the Inquiry in relation to the
death of Victoria Climbié and the Inquiry's recommendations
have given rise to significant changes in the structure of children's
services.
The numbers of children in these different categories
is not known.
The Immigration Service and immigration officials
face considerable problems in identifying children at risk in
any of these categories. The service's primary purpose is the
determination of eligibility to enter or to remain in the U.K.
as prescribed by the rules and these do not have a primary children's
safeguarding function. There are general principles for the discharge
of immigration functions in relation to separated children set
out in the Statement of Good Practice published by the
Separated Children in Europe Programme and the Guidelines for
Best Practice in Working with Children and Young People Subject
to Immigration Control published by the Immigration Law Practitioners'
Association.
However, the rules themselves and especially those
that determine and manage asylum claims put many parents/relatives
who have responsibility for children in positions of great difficulty.
Uncertainty over their future stay in the UK or a failed asylum
claim plus lack of resources and lack of information make any
arrangement they need to make for the children a high risk arrangement.
They are likely to draw on people who themselves may not be suitable
to care for children and pose a risk to the child. The operation
of the immigration system itself can therefore generate practices
that put children at risk—section 9 cases having become
the most well known. (see Inhumane and Ineffective—Section
9 In Practice.[5])
There are other situations where insufficient attention
is paid to the risks that a child may face upon entry to the UK.
For example, where a young person makes an asylum claim at a Port
of Entry and intends to join a relative already in the UK, that
young person would not have the status of an unaccompanied young
person and would not be referred to social services for an assessment
of their needs. The adult they were joining would be assumed to
have the resources and capacity to care for that young person
with no status checks being undertaken to ascertain the relationship
or parenting capacity.
The solutions to these problems are complex. Creating
secure UK borders and a fair and transparent asylum system inevitably
involves compromise. However, the paramountcy of the welfare of
children separated from their parents and families and from their
cultures and countries of origin must be a driving principle within
the immigration and asylum system. Children are drawn into an
adult word not of their making and that adult world has a responsibility
to ensure that children are appropriately protected from it.
8. BAAF'S RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Where an adult enters the UK and is accompanied
by a child and they respectively claim asylum, checks must be
undertaken to establish the relationship of the child to the adult.
Where that status is verified, preliminary inquires should also
be undertaken to establish the capacity of the adult to care for
the child during the processing of the asylum claim. Services
must be made available to comply with the provisions of the Children
Act 1989 where a child is assessed to be in need.
8.2 Local Authorities should establish close
links with local communities to help identify children at risk
because their status is provisional or marginal. The responsibilities
of communities to work with Safeguarding Boards and local authorities
should be emphasized with clear routes and procedures for identification
and referral.
8.3 Visa and entry officers should be required
to inquire whether an adult intends to maintain the full care
of the child during their stay in the UK.
8.4 Immigration officers should be trained to
understand the importance of identifying potential risks to those
children entering the UK where the plan for the stay and the care
of the child is unclear.
8.5 Immigration Officers should be required to
notify local authorities where a child's carer has a plan to place
them in a private foster care arrangement during their stay.
8.6 Where an adult enters the UK and is accompanied
by a child and they respectively claim asylum, checks must be
undertaken to establish the relationship of the child to the adult.
If the adult is not a close relative within the definition of
relative contained in the Children Act 1989, then that child is
being privately fostered and the immigration officer must notify
the local authority. Where that status is verified, preliminary
enquiries should also be undertaken to establish the capacity
of the adult to care for the child during the processing of the
asylum claim. Services must be made available to comply with the
provisions of the Children Act 1989 where a child is assessed
to be in need.
8.7 Where an adult asylum seeker has a failed
claim and leaves the UK, inquiries should be undertaken if that
adult previously had the care of a child about the care or whereabouts
of that child.
8.8 Section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration Act
2004 should be repealed.
13 February 2006
3 The term child is used throughout this document
but is intended to include those that are young people up to the
age of 18.- speak out on behalf of looked-after children; Back
4
The Separated Children in Europe Programme is a joint
initiative of some members of the International Save the Children
Alliance in Europe and the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees. Back
5
Inhumane and Ineffective-Section 9 in Practice; A Joint Refugee
Council and Refugee Action Report on the Section 9 Pilot (January
2006). Back
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