to despair that as a supposedly civilised society we can’t do better for children in care

[Welshwoman]

I keep seeing the advert here for the channel 4 program about kids in care and just think its disgusting how vulnerable children are treated in society when people like sp Abu Hamza get so many privileges in jail and so much money in legal aid (please note just the 1st person who sprang to mind not a ?Muslim? or race thing just a grown up prisoner thing)

My friend fosters and many of these children are ?lost? they have several different case workers a year - and are passed around like hand name down clothes

I despair that as a supposedly civilised society we can?t do better -

One of my thoughts would be that each child in care gets a non social worker advocate - some who cares for children but maybe can?t foster and that person is involved in any major decisions for as long as that child is in care to give the child some continuity and someone to talk to outside of the ?system ? in case there is abuse going on

What does anyone else think we can do ?

But dont you have to be an established fc first?

All the adverts asking for fcs state that you can be any sex, religion, ethnic background etc but you MUST have the physical room for a child.

I cannot imagine any housing authority moving a family because they WANT to be fcs. Or a LA agreeing an expensive adaptation to a fc that hasnt been well and truly tried and tested.

I would imagine the grants are made to adapt homes that are already big enough for foster care but need to be bigger for specific reasons ie. disability and taking on extra siblings.

As for the council house one - the state of social housing in my borough is dire. Most people are in private rented now.

I think my ideas would be very difficult to put into practice but I cannot think of many more ways to increase the number of fc that doesnt involve spending out a considerable amount of money.