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?

Yes Justabout. This is what is so sad and wrong about society.

How much longer before Councils decide that no-one under 16 (let alone 16-18) is allowed a faith, even if being brought up by their birth parents?

They're not refusing the girl her right to practise her faith - they're refusing to let the FM work. I'm not sure it's helpful to speculate on what ss would have approved of. I agree it sound heavy-handed but perhaps they need to investigate all the facts (including what sort of Church she has signed up for and their creed). After all, SS are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Fair point SimplySally. But the Council did try and persuade the girl to reverse her decision.

wonder what would have happened if the girl had been christian and converted to being muslim. or am i being too suspicious here?FM is scapegoat for the pc brigade i think. bugger all to to with her actually,the girl made the descision.

Yes it was the girl's choice. The Council have no sanctions for her so they are taking their 'incandescent rage' out on the FM who appears to have acted in an exemplary manner.

Maybe the Council should exclude all foster parents who have a faith, except they would probably then have even fewer than they do already.

I often wonder - exactly who are this 'pc brigade' that everyone mentions? I'm being serious, what does it mean?

RB, I take it loosely to mean the 'public sector' as a large homogenous quango which is often more concerned with drafting rules, regulations and policies than practical common sense. Strictly IME of course.

It's interesting that they cite a "breakdown in trust" as the reason for this.

As others have noted, given the dearth of quality foster parents you'd have thought that the council would be reluctant to strike off one who had previously raised 80 plus previous kids. It's also somewhat surprising, even if they are very PC that a council official would be "incandescent [with] rage" simply for the girl converting at age 16.

I suspect there is something more to this story. Not sure whether this is possible, but may be it be the case that the foster parent had promised to bring her up in the Islamic faith as part of fostering her?

cestlavie, maybe that is possible, I don't know.

It sounds as though the FM tried in any case.

But the thing is, it was the girl's choice, it seems unfair to penalise the FM, and indeed to expect her to exert any control over any faith or lack of it? That's what confuses me.

Did it not say fm was going to court? So the council had better be damn sure of their reasons anyway.

Ridiculous. I do hope - unless there is a LOT more to this - that the foster mother succeeds in her legal claim.

Particularly unfair as councils break promises to birth families about religion all the time when it comes to adoption.

I hate all this obsession SS have with matching children in care with adoptive families purely on the grounds of race or culture. Seems positively racist to leave children languishing in care, where they are more likely to end up homeless/in prison/sectioned than get five decent GCSEs just because there aren't adoptive parents from the 'right' culture. SS seem to consider that the colour of your skin is THE most important thing about you.

cestlavie what was the FM to do? drag the girl kicking and screaming to the nearest mosque at the first mention of chritstianity?, its only religion, are they not all just basicly about trying to be better people,and having rules to help?perhaps the girl rejected islam for her own reasons/ or prefered a christian way of life? i couldnt care less if my kids started to worship the garden knomb ,as long as they were decent people!

Sure. And I'd love for someone who is a foster parent to contradict me but I wonder if, as part of undertaking to foster a child, you, as a foster parent, undertake to raise them in a certain way particularly if the intention is to return them to their parents.

In the case of Islam, conversion to another faith is apostasy which means (I think) that the child's original family may not have been willing or able to take her back if she converted. Without judging whether it is right or wrong for the family to act like that (um, I think I know the answer), it may then have been very much in the interests of the child to ensure that she could return to her family at a later date. Therefore, ensuring that she continued to practice the Islamic faith could have been a fundamental part of the fostering agreement which the FM signed up to.

I suppose the full facts will surface when the case goes to court, if there is more than we know at present. I would not be surprisedf to hear of an 'out of court' settlement.

I agree Edam, it does seem very sad and wrong. I would haave thought that placing a child of one culture with a family of another would be a positive thing and in the true spirit of diversity and integration anyway. But then I am a simple soul.

I would imagine that the girl who had suffered in her birth family came to a warm and loving home and liked what she saw there and , realising it was a christian home, decided she wanted to bring up a family that way/be part of those ethics and to convert. Simple really. Our immediate environment has a very big impact on us and this girl was purely and simply influenced however unintentionally by the fm's home. Surely SS by dint of placing over 80 kids in her care were merely corroborating her good care by placing a girl there and this girl was merely apeing that care and home by wishing to become as much a part of it as she could - by converting.

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..."told the Mail on Sunday"

I am a little suspicious about what appear to be bandwagon-jumpers from the 'Waaah, you're not allowed to be a Christian today' posse. It is, of course, possible that the council in question has a half a dozen of the sort of loonies that want to ban hot-cross buns on the grounds that they are offensive, hence the ruck, but it's also possible that there's a lot of information we don't know. And I think SGM is right about the legal ramifications of an under-18 changing religions in foster care.
(SGM: don't mean to sound patronizing - I think you work in this area? I don't actually know myself but what you said sounds reasonable).