The upset of a life in care starts even before kids meet their new foster parents. You dont know what theyre like. You get told a little bit about them, but then you walk through the door - and theres your home, says Mark, 17, who has been in 11 foster homes since he was taken into care six years ago. Meeting new foster parents is scary.
| With one set of carers, I didnt get any clothes, even though they are given a clothing allowance for you. |
Until the National Foster Care Association introduced new guidelines earlier this year, there was no uniform standard or approach among local authorities responsible for their well-being.
It's really bad. Social workers have a file which they show to carers. I have a bad record, which Im not proud of, but carers never get told of my good qualities, complains Dominique, who is 17 and has been in care since she was ten. It doesn't just go wrong, it goes bang! People have said, no, I don't want Dominique to come and live with me.
With so much left to chance, children have found themselves too often neglected by those who are supposed to have their best interests at heart. Dominique is still raw from one experience: During the year and a half with one set of carers, I didnt get any clothes, even though they are given a clothing allowance for you. They spent all the money on computers and drum kits for their sons.
Amy, 17, and in care for the past 18 months, recalls one foster parent who told me to f*** off out of her house because she was having a bad day. How did she feel? It really broke me. I thought if I want this kind of abuse, Id live at home.
According to a recent survey by the Who Cares? Trust, 24 per cent of children who are in care for five years or more will move at least 11 times. Finding a home under these circumstances becomes as conditional as finding a job. Dominique says, I had to change the way I thought and my attitudes, just to have a roof over my head. It takes a long time to pick yourself back up from the knock-back.
Until the failures of a life in care are resolved, fostered children will continue to feel stigmatised. Stephen, 17, has learnt the advice hes been given by rote: My foster parents have told me that when I go for a job interview, never to say I'm in foster care because they'll automatically think Ive committed a crime and won't give me the job.
Names have been changed.
About the team
This article was produced by Julia Press, 18, Anna Chandwani, 16, Lizzie Kenyon, 15, Camille Noriega, 14, Gabriella Gay, 13, and Ana Mackay-Beasley, 13. It was published in Local Government Voice Solo.
