Foster parent struck off after Muslim girl converts to Christianity.

[MrsSeanBeanIsEmployable]

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I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind this decision.

It would appear to be unfair, unequal and disrespectful of the right of a 16 year old to make her own decision, not to mention discriminatory against the foster mother.

I was not aware that foster carers had to live a secular life. What else could she have done?!

The thing which I think annoys me most is 'Council officials advised the teenager to reconsider her decision' .... who the *?%$ do they think they are to advise anyone on matters of faith?

When I say what else could she have done - I am referring to the foster mother who appears to have acted in a reasonable way.

Surely they can and should advise children in their care about such a major steps as this?

However, at face value, this does seem unreasonable behaviour towards the foster carer, unless there is more to it that hasn't been reported.

Fair enough to advise in unbiased way, but IMHO Councils wouldn't go around encouraging people with no faith to convert, nor should they. If a Christian had converted to Islam would they have been so keen to reverse the decision? I think matters such as this should be a personal decision for the individual. You can get married at 16, you should be able to decide what your faith us as well.
And if a child/ young person has been placed with a foster family, surely it's the job of the foster parent to do the advising?

You know, I'm not going to do the comparing situations of 'if she converted to x, would the reaction be the same'.

The girl is 16, and appears to have made a decision about her own beliefs. Yes, there are serious possible implications, but I fail to see why she isn't being given the respect she deserves, tbh. And, unless there were other issues that haven't been revealed, I can't see a valid reason for not using the foster mother again, either.

Yes of course, but I think the council would still have overall responsibility. Yes, she is 16 but that is still very young to be making a big decision like that. Maybe they just advised her to wait until she was a bit older? She is quite probably vulnerable as well, and maybe they thought it was not the best time for her to be making huge life decisions. Tbh, I would have been more surprised if they had not advised her to wait a bit. It doesn't mean she has to take the advice though.

Still doesn't explain why they won't be using the foster mother again, though. Just because she's a Christian, too? That's crooked as a dog's hind leg. I can't see where the FM has behaved innappropriately.

Diversity and equality are all very well..................unless you happen to be a Christian, then anyone and their dog can have a go at you and it's OK.

I am sorry but I am getting a bit peeved and possibly unreasonable due to recent events, like the nurse who was suspended for praying.

People who don't believe in prayer can't be affected by the outcome anyway, so why is it such a big issue? It's like saying you are not allowed to wish anyone 'good luck'.

Sorry my last post was a bit unclear, I meant that if you don't believe, then how can you believe a prayer is going to affect you, or be bothered by it?

If that's the councils attitude the foster carer is well out of it, they'll run out of people willing to do the job soon.

No the article doesn't really explain why the fm has been suspended apart from 'breach of trust' I think it says, which could mean anything. However, foster carers are few and far between and very valuable to councils I think - so there may be more to it than is being reported. There ususally is.

It does seem a bit odd.

I mean, becoming a Christian doesn't need to be permanent, does it? It isn't as if the FM alllowed her to get three piercings and an obscene tattoo!

Teenagers do get romantically keyed into things like religion, and it does seem as if she was very swift in getting baptised - surprised the church were willing, really.
Of course it would be wrong for foster carers to foist any view of religion on - or off - their foster children, but there is no suggestion that this happened.

Perhaos ther is some rule that FMs have to tell the council if they are doing anything like getting baptised.

Yes, I agree they are always trying to recruit foster carers, if the number of ads one sees is anything to go by.

It is possible that there are issues we don't know about of course.

My initial reaction was, why didn't the Council place the girl with Muslim foster parents if they were that worried..... but then I thought there were probably none available.

Well, the girl apparently had an interest in Christianity before she was even in the FM's care. How quick is quick for a baptism? Some people do it straight away, others wait a long time.

I'm guessing that it's more a matter of protocol - this may be an area where a FM doesn't have discretion not to inform the social services of a fosteree's decision/intentions which is why the council are acting in this way. It doesn't sound an invalid point that some Mumslim countries aren't very tolerant to people who convert to another faith so potentially could affect her later in life.

sounds odd but I wonder if there are deeper implications here?

i.e. the child was in foster care. Therefore, would her rejecting her own religion and taking on the religion of the foster carers have an impact on her relationship, and possible reconcilliation with her birth family? Afaik foster parents are required to facilitate contact between the child and their birth families, so if the girl had converted to a religion shared by her foster mother then it could be seen as obstruction of that relationship, iyswim?

and sixteen is not an adult - legally she is still a child.

I think the comment about the Council foster manager becoming 'incandescent with rage' is highly worrying and inappropriate. This does not sound like the reaction of a professional or reasonable person to me. And these people are in charge of vulnerable young people. Scary.

They probably want to write a policy for the next possible occasion - perhaps they're investigating to make sure there was no compulsion to convert without just taking the FM's side of it.

I'm sure if I'd gone into foster care as a child and had adopted a faith foreign to the one I was born into that somebody would have raised questions about how did this happen.

Afaik foster parents are required to facilitate contact between the child and their birth families, so if the girl had converted to a religion shared by her foster mother then it could be seen as obstruction of that relationship, iyswim?

just about yes she was sixteen, but she was vulnerable. the mere fact that she was in foster care would indicate that.

I'm not saying that the decision was right btw, it seems very strange indeed, was just offering a potential explanation as to why this might have happened. But if the FM took steps to discourage her then I do wonder what more there could be to this.