How much to foster a child uk

How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid?

Fostering a child can be a truly rewarding experience, enabling you to change a child or young person’s life for the better. But of course, choosing whether to foster is an important decision – and one of the common questions that gets asked is, how much do foster parents get paid? Find out whether foster care pay is enough to make fostering a viable career choice for your family now.

Fostering Allowance

So, how much do you get paid for fostering? Fostering a child who desperately needs your help not only has emotional rewards, but financial benefits, too. As a foster carer, there is rarely time away from the job – which is why a fostering allowance is provided in order to support you.

How much foster carers are paid per week depends on a number of factors. These factors can include:

Child’s needs - the needs of the child or young person in your care
Age - the age of your foster placement
Location - the geographical area you are fostering in.
Local authority or independent fostering agency - it can also depend on whether you are fostering with a local authority or an independent fostering agency – as the latter can often afford to pay its foster carers a larger weekly amount than local authorities can.

So, how much do foster carers get paid?

Here at Capstone Foster Care, as an independent agency, we offer competitive fostering rates for our fostering placements.

The demand for therapeutic fostering placements has grown over the last year and, as a result, Capstone Foster Care has introduced a programme to provide the extra training and resources required to carers to enable them to provide therapeutic placements. Fostering allowances for these placements is between £515 and £650. Most of our carers are able to offer this service. If you look after a child in a therapeutic placement for a whole year, your total income will be over £26,780 (and £23,000 of this will be tax-free).

The fostering allowance for parent and child placements is from £570 per week and the demand for this service is always strong.

Total allowances for most of our standard placements including respite payments is around £400 per week, which would work out to be around £1,700 a month.

Foster Care Pay Scale – Broken Down

The weekly allowance paid to carers is made up of two parts:

Money to cover the costs of looking after a child - this can include household expenses, food, clothing, mileage, school meals and more
A reward to the carer for your time and skill - this is based on the age of the foster child, the type of fostering placement and whether or not this is specialist fostering.

There are standards set by the government that independent agencies, such as Capstone Foster Care, use as a guideline for the compensation paid to their foster carers. There is a minimum basic fostering allowance per child in care to cover the costs of looking after the child based on the child’s age and geographic location and this ranges from approximately £130 to £200 per week. As part of the weekly fostering pay, the allowance would cover general household expenses, mileage, food, school meals, pocket money and the child’s clothing.

The other part of the fostering allowance rewards you for the time and energy involved in providing the kind of home that gives the child a chance of a brighter future.

Do foster carers pay tax?

As well as the income, foster carers benefit from special tax rules. This means that in practice, a foster carer with one child during the year will pay no tax – and only small amounts of tax are paid by carers with more than one child in placement. However, it should be noted that as a foster carer, you will not be able to claim Child Benefit for a foster child or Child Tax Credit.

Once you are an approved foster parent and registered with the HMRC, you will be classed as self-employed – and will need to keep a record of the ages and dates of when you foster children for a tax return form you’ll need to complete each year.

Can foster parents receive benefits?

While there are some tax benefits you cannot claim, as a foster parent, you may be able to claim any of the following benefits:

Income support
Council tax reduction
Income-based job seeker’s allowance
Disability living allowance
Working tax credits
Housing benefit

Ready to apply for your career in foster care? Learn more about how to apply to become a foster parent now. Alternatively, if you want to know more about fostering pay or advice on how much foster parents get paid, contact Capstone Foster Care on 0800 012 4004.

Wootton Chase, Wootton St Lawrence, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG23 8PE

PRIVACY NOTICE

How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid?

How Much do Foster Parents get Paid?

While fostering attracts people who want to make a change in the lives of children and young people, not far behind is the question of how much foster parents get paid. As a foster carer, can you bring in enough money to make it a viable career choice?

The short answer is “yes.” Becoming a foster carer and caring for a child who desperately needs you is its own reward but there are financial benefits as well. It’s not the same as being employed outside the home because as a foster parent, there is rarely time away from the job. Find out everything you need to know about foster care pay today.

Foster Care Pay – for FosterCare UK carers

How much foster carers are paid per week varies on a number of factors. This can include:

The needs of the child or young person in your care
The age of your foster placement and the geographical area you are fostering in.
It can also depend on whether you are fostering with a local authority of an independent fostering agency – as the latter can often afford to pay its care team a larger weekly amount than local authorities can.

So, how much do foster parents get paid?

This weekly fostering income is split into two distinct parts:

The first exists as a support for foster carers and to help cover the costs of caring for a foster placement, including the cost for food, clothing, transport, etc. This is normally between £130-200 per child. The second part acts as a reward for carer’s hard work and dedication in providing their fostering services.

At FosterCare UK, our fostering pay weekly rates are as follows:

Parent and child placements – approx. £700 per week
Therapeutic placements – approx. £500 to £600 per week
Standard placements – over £400 per week*

*except for the youngest children and these are rare.

Most of our new carers are able to offer therapeutic or parent and child placements.

If you look after a child in a therapeutic placement for a whole year, your total income will be over £26,000 (and £23,000 will be tax-free).

Do foster parents pay tax?

Foster carers are considered self-employed professionals and so are eligible to claim income tax relief benefits. This generally means that foster parents with a single placement will not be required to pay any tax on any money received for that placement in a year – foster parents with two or more foster children need only pay a small amount of tax.

Need more information on foster care pay, or still wondering how much the fostering allowance will be for your family? Get in touch with one of our fostering experts today at FosterCare UK.

Wootton Chase, Wootton St Lawrence, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG23 8PE

PRIVACY NOTICE

Adoption system in England is being simplified

December 24, 2012

Image caption,

The number of adoptive parents in the UK is on the rise, but many are put off by years of waiting to meet "their" child

The British government has decided to change its adoption rules to make it faster and more efficient to find foster parents for children deprived of a family.

Those who have already passed the screening and received permission to adopt a child will be given the opportunity to access the database of children, and additional support will be provided to families after adoption.

The British Foster Families Association welcomed the Cabinet announcement.

The number of adoptions in the country is growing: in 2010, three thousand children received foster parents, in 2012 - more than four thousand. But the same number - about 4,000 - are deprived of parental care and are waiting for a family to be picked up for them.

The government wants to interest hundreds of citizens in the prospect of adoption and create attractive conditions for them, but the verification of prospective parents will remain strict and scrupulous.

Not Blindly

The biggest change in the pipeline is that adoptive parents will be able to view the database of children and teenagers in the adoption queue and find out information about them in advance. To do this, you will have to change the law, said a representative of the British Department of Education.

The government also plans to give adoptive parents the right to additional leave so that they can get to know their children better. Adopted children at the age of two will be provided with places in a nursery - 15 hours of free stay per week.

"This package is designed to support those considering adoption so that they know they will be welcomed with open arms if they decide to take this step," Edward Timpson, Deputy Secretary of State for Education, told the BBC. participate in the selection process, and those who have passed all the way will be provided with much more help and support than now."

Around 15,000 Britons express an interest in child custody each year, Timpson says. They make inquiries about the possibility of adoption, but then many are put off by the complexity and length of the procedure. Verification of potential parents sometimes takes years, and all this time the children remain in shelters or with temporary guardians, the official said.

Maternity leave

Skip the Podcast and continue reading.

Podcast

What was that?

We quickly, simply and clearly explain what happened, why it's important and what's next.

episodes

End of Story Podcast

Authorities are willing to fund special adoption days where adults meet children. The charity BAAF has already held three such events, and as a result, every fifth child of those who participated in this day was successfully matched with a family.

According to Janet Grauberg of another charitable foundation, Barnardo, the longer an orphan or neglected child is left in an orphanage, without the love and stability that a permanent family provides, the more he suffers.

"The changes the authorities intend to make to the system will empower adoptive parents and reduce the barriers that have deterred prospective parents for too long," says Grauberg.

There are already innovations in Britain that make life easier for foster families: adoptive parents - mothers and fathers - are given maternity leave of the same duration as biological parents in the case of the birth of children; there is a telephone hotline and a dedicated website for emergency family counselling.

Here and now - Take away a child in an hour - why is it impossible in England

There is no secret of adoption. The average age of adoptive parents is 55 years. Even difficult teenage orphans study in ordinary schools. The removal of children from the family does not happen unexpectedly. Delinquent parents are helped to find resources to deal with the problem. Varvara Penzova, director of the Our Children charity foundation, is speaking after her internship in London.

How the movie changed working with orphans

Great Britain is the birthplace of attachment theory, which fundamentally changes the approach to raising children, this is the place where the impact of orphanage education on children was first analyzed, where the famous documentary film "John" was filmed in 1969.

In the film, a little boy living in an ordinary family suddenly finds himself in an institution. Before our eyes, during the 14 days of his stay there, he changes a lot, closes himself from communication, withdraws into himself. On the basis of these studies, the whole system of work with orphans and families in crisis has seriously changed throughout the country, and then all over the world.

I work for the Russian charitable foundation Our Children and am not an expert on the British system of working with families in crisis and orphans. In December, I attended an internship organized by the Timchenko Foundation, and I want to share what I saw in London's orphanages and foster agencies. This may give us food for thought.

Difference #1: Don't Punish Parents, Help Them

In the British guardianship system, a very important principle is to identify the problem at an early stage, when it is easiest to solve.

For example, when a child is just starting to skip school, or when it becomes known that some kind of tragedy has happened in the family.

All services that interact with children in one way or another are trained to recognize signs of child abuse or dysfunction in the family. If they are found, this information is reported to social services, after which the social educator collects data on what is happening with this family.

Let's say the mother did not pick up the child from school. The teacher informs the social service about this and, according to the police act, the child can be removed without supervision for 72 hours - for this time he gets to a substitute family, which is ready to accept children in such emergency cases. Then the teacher explains what happened. Suppose there are objective reasons that prevented the mother from meeting the child: she had an accident, is in the hospital. Then it turns out who can take care of the child while the mother is away. Either the mother returned, the child was given away - the problem is resolved.

If it turns out that this is due to neglect of parental responsibilities - the mother went on a spree, for example - then more detailed information is collected about what is happening in the family, about how it affects children, what resources the family has to cope with it.

A whole commission is going to make further decisions. A very important difference, in my opinion, is that the task of the commission is not to knock irresponsible parents on the head, but to help them see the problem and see their resources for solving it.

A psychologist, a social pedagogue, representatives of medicine and the police work with parents. Their task is to inspire the parent to change the situation on their own. For example, if the mother’s work schedule does not allow picking up the child from school on time, then she is helped to find someone in her environment who can replace her. The task is not to blame and punish the parent, but to offer him help.

Or, for example, a teenage child, and parents lack the competence to cope with a difficult adolescence. They are invited to special courses so that they learn more about this age and can build relationships with their son or daughter.

Assistance can also be financial: registration of social benefits or assistance in finding a job. There is a whole list of professions for which people are retrained, which contributes to their successful socialization. Then they can independently care for their child and provide him with everything necessary.

Difference number 2: The main thing is that the child stays in the family

All efforts are aimed at helping the family to keep the child and learn how to take care of him and educate him.

We were told one amazing story - about a family where, among other problems, my mother had mental problems. Already three children of this couple had to be removed from the family: the problems could not be resolved, and for the safety of the children they were transferred to foster care, to foster families. And then the fourth baby was born. The family shows with all their behavior that they are ready to take care of him, that now everything will be different.

But mom, unfortunately, is not able to do it herself. For six months, a social worker was with the family during the daytime, helping to manage the household and take care of the baby. At night, the child was taken to a foster family. In such cases, specialists monitor the dynamics: six months are given to resolve the situation, and if there is at least some positive progress, then they continue to work with the family. If not - the parents do not fulfill their part of the obligations and do not change their behavior - then a decision is made to withdraw the child.

So in this family, six months later, dad decided to part with his mother, but not to send the child to an institution, but to take over his upbringing. For a while, the social worker helped dad cope, and after a few months he was already able to live and care for the baby on his own. Six months of work of social services - and the child grows up in a family with his own father.

The main tenet of the system is that most families are able to take care of their children on their own with a little help.

Difference #3: No “ghettos” for orphans and children with special needs!

The big difference from the system adopted in our country is that in the UK no one seeks to create closed institutions for children with certain characteristics. There are correctional schools in the country, but their number is declining. Everything is aimed at integrating people with special needs into everyday life.

The task of the entire system is to prepare them as much as possible for life in the ordinary world. This also applies to difficult teenagers with antisocial behavior. Even the most difficult teenagers in the orphanage where we were - often with a criminal past, with some serious psychological problems - are taught to live, study and work in society.

Difference #4: The removal of a child does not come as a shock to the family

If there are problems in the family, and after six months of support by psychologists and other specialists, there is no positive dynamics, the case is referred to the court. It is very important that when it comes to the court for the removal of a child, it does not become a shock, surprise or surprise either for the family or for the child himself.

Because at each stage of work with the family, they discuss the actions and responsibilities of each person involved and the options for consequences in a particular case. And this is an important difference from our system.

It often happens that when coming to a dysfunctional family, a well-meaning employee of our guardianship says to the child, for example: “We will now go with you to the hospital, the doctor will look at you. It's not for long!" - while she herself already knows perfectly well that the child is being seized. That he would spend the next few months in an orphanage.

If the representatives of guardianship themselves do not know how it will end for the child, it is still necessary to even say this honestly, at a level accessible to him. We are already working on such algorithms. Of course, when the removal of a child from the family is associated with an immediate threat to his life, there is simply no time for long work and preparation. But in such a situation, I think specialists should also be ready to honestly answer the child's questions. The main thing is not to lie. Lies for good, as far as I understand, are unacceptable in the British system.

Difference #5: Children…and Babies Are Considered

It is very important that the decision on approaches to work with the family is made and then regularly discussed, corrected and reviewed by a team of specialists, and not just one person, which allows avoiding subjectivity.

What is also interesting: when assessing the situation and making a decision, the desire of children, expressed verbally or non-verbally (if it is an infant or a child who cannot speak), is taken into account. The specialist looks at how he interacts with his relatives, how they react to them: whether he catches the eye of an adult, smiles, reaches out to his parents, or gets scared, hides, avoids looking, or even completely indifferent.

Difference #6: A biological parent who was not in a child's life cannot pick it up

Here we recall the story of Matvey Ivanov stolen from the maternity hospital in Dedovsk - he was also found in January of this year: he was stolen and raised by a woman who lost her own child. It is not known how this case will end.

But in Britain, for example, the principle of the best interests of the child and the importance of the permanence of his environment means that a biological parent who has been completely absent from the child's life has no preferential rights to return him to himself.

For example, a parent was in prison, did not contact the child, was not interested in him, the child was brought up in a foster family for all 3 years of his life. In such a situation, the biological parent does not have priority rights to his child, he cannot return him to himself only on the grounds that he is the father. Because the child already has an established environment, relationships, why on earth should he be transferred to a virtual stranger?

Difference #7: Most seized children are returned to their families of origin

2/3 of the cases handled by social workers end with the return of children to their families. They note that working with the family is most effective in the first 3-6 months after opening a case. But the work can take longer if needed.

We are very glad that these data echo the conclusions that we made based on the results of work in the Smolensk region. Our psychologists and social educators work with children who are already permanently in the orphanage, but even in this case there are successful stories of returning children to their birth families. And the less the child is in the institution, the greater the chance to return him.

And this means that if you go to shelters and rehabilitation centers where children go temporarily, or to a family support service where parents go in a crisis situation, then the chance to save families will be even higher.

Difference number 8: Parental rights are not deprived!

If, nevertheless, the family cannot cope, then a special court is convened (the judges participating in it also undergo retraining and deal exclusively with similar issues), and there a decision can be made to establish state supervision of the child and move him to be raised in another family.

Biological parents do not lose their rights. Just for a while, state law prevails over parental law.

This means that parental rights cannot be terminated. There is no such thing! State supervision over the family may be established. But a parent is always a parent. Exception: the case of adoption - then parental rights are completely transferred to another family.

Difference #9: Three-quarters of orphans are raised in foster families

In Britain, if a family cannot raise a child, first of all, his relatives are searched for, even neighbors, teachers, families of close school friends - the entire usual social circle of the child is moved. If it is impossible to arrange with friends, then a foster family is selected.

Adoption has recently been considered an extremely undesirable form of child placement, because it violates his rights - it breaks his connection with the birth family.

More than 75 percent of children who do not live with their parents are raised in foster families. However, the blood family does not completely disappear from the child's life: if communication with the family is possible, if it is safe for the child, then it occurs in a limited way.

In Russia, most of these children still live in institutions - this is the main form of placement of orphans in our country. And, as a rule, communication with relatives, unfortunately, is interrupted.

Our foundation is engaged in the reunification of orphans with their relatives, because without this the problem with orphans cannot be solved. Our experience of working with children in an orphanage shows that guardianship authorities often do nothing to find relatives, although they are there and could maintain contact with the children.

Difference No. 10: No more than three adopted children per family

The main requirement for a foster family is a free room. A foster child must have their own room. At the same time, more than three foster children cannot be placed in one family at the same time, even if conditions allow.

One of the priorities is not to separate brothers and sisters if possible. What if there are four of them? Only three can be arranged in a family ... Each case is considered individually. Sometimes priorities conflict with each other. Let's say one of them has needs that can't be met outside of London.

And in London, there are few families ready to accept several children - there are not so many free rooms. Assess what is more important: keeping the brother and sister together or separating them to provide for the special needs of one of them - for example, a special school. Priority is determined by the municipality.

A social educator is appointed - the curator of the case. And if there are several children, then there are several curators - for each child. The case of each child is considered separately, because even in the same family, children can have a big difference in age and not communicate much, or, for example, some children lived with their grandparents, others lived with their father and mother, and are also not very familiar.

The needs of a particular child are considered. It is the social service that determines what services he needs: maybe he needs a speech therapist, or a psychologist, or some kind of special medical supervision. Therefore, when looking for a substitute family, the state is looking for the possibility of maximum satisfaction of these needs. Including, they try to preserve as much as possible - if it is safe for the child - his environment: so that he stays to live in the same area of the city where he lived, goes to the same school, so that, in addition to changing adults caring for him, his life changes minimally.

Difference No. 11: Only people check and accompany the foster family

In Britain, there are state and non-state agencies for the preparation and support of adoptive parents - foster agencies. It is very important that the functions of preparation and support are combined in one place!

This means that those people who prepare the family for a new status and evaluate its resources, accompany this family when orphans get to it, they are also responsible for the quality of accommodation (the length of stay of children in the family, their well-being in it, etc. ). .). That is, people initially have an idea about the family, contact is established with it, there is an understanding of what can be expected from whom, they are emotionally oriented towards each other. It turns out that they evaluate and prepare the family to receive children and are responsible for the quality of this assessment and preparation!

While we have schools for foster parents - this is still a separate institution that issues a piece of paper on passing. On the formal basis of the presence of this piece of paper, the guardianship authorities give the go-ahead for the adoption of a child, not even being really familiar with this family.

Difference No. 12: Agency collects documents and certificates

Each family that has a free room and the necessary conditions can apply to the foster agency and become adoptive parents. The first face-to-face acquaintance with representatives of guardianship authorities takes place on the territory of a potential foster family. This makes it possible for the family to feel calm and confident, and for the specialist to get much more information about how they live.

Then comes the stage of collecting documents - it is carried out not by the family, but by representatives of the agency.

The specialist seeks information from the police, the place of work, and the clinic, and collects feedback from neighbors, friends, relatives. And the family is just waiting - the process takes up to 8 months.

Then they take a basic course of study - 8 or 10 blocks. But in general, foster families are constantly learning. Let's say you took a 7-year-old kid, but time passes - and he is already a teenager: other questions and problems arise before you.

Foster families are in constant contact with the agency. The social worker visits the family at least 14 times a year, 12 of them by agreement with the family, and 2 times without warning. This is a standardized approach.

The adoptive parent keeps a diary of the child's life. Let's say: “I came from school; got sick; today he communicated well with the neighborhood children, ”and he is certified by a social worker weekly. That is, the contact between the family and the social worker is very tight!

Difference #13: The average age of foster parents is 55

The average age of adoptive parents is 55 years.

No maximum age limit.

We were told about one elderly lady, an employee of the agency, through which more than 100 children passed. It is clear that she does not accommodate small children for a long period, but she is a parent who can take children in emergency cases for short-term placement.

Difference #14: Adopters of only blue-eyed, healthy children with good genetics are denied

We have a queue of adoptive parents who want to take home blue-eyed, healthy babies from a prosperous family - that is, without “bad genetics”. In England, if a family sets such conditions in an interview, they are told:

“You know, we have no need for the upbringing of such children. The main contingent is teenagers, children of migrants, antisocial children. So if you're clearly targeting blue-eyed girls, I'm sorry - we can't help you."

They are not even taken to teach - such parents are simply not taken into this system. Those who are hired are ready to cover real needs, and not satisfy their desire to raise a certain type of children.

Which children will be given to one or another foster family is determined by the results of training and interaction of the family with a specialist. Suppose parents want to take a teenager, but during the conversations it turns out that they are emotionally unstable people and will not be able to resist some kind of aggressive manifestations that occur in adolescence. So, they will accommodate the kids. Or, for example, a family does not mind taking a child with special needs, but their house is not suitable for him - there is no elevator or no ramp. They, of course, will not give such a child to raise.

Each family has a profile. There is a base where their “professional qualifications” are indicated - what type of children and for how long they are ready to accept. For example, there is an emergency type of placement: when a child is removed from a dysfunctional family, he is in a state of stress, and you should try to calm him down and be prepared for the fact that he will not make contact. Or this is a short-term withdrawal from the family - while the parents are solving some problems - for 1-2 months: in this case, you should be prepared for the fact that you cannot become attached to him tightly, that you will have to return him to your parents.

The task of the agency is to determine these categories for each family. That is, it turns out that not a child is selected for a family, but a family for a child! Each case of a social worker is a case of a child, not a family.

Difference #15: There is no adoption mystery

There is no secret adoption, it is considered unacceptable, and the work is to ensure that the child does not have a single chance to grow up without knowing that he was adopted.

Therefore, this is said from the very beginning, the child grows up with this information, not perceiving it as a kind of shock. This is constantly talked about with him, in different ways, depending on age, but for him this is never news.

There, a situation is excluded when, in adolescence, a person suddenly accidentally finds out that he is not his own, and that his close people have been lying to him all his life. The consequences of such news - psychological trauma and a break with relatives - are very difficult to overcome later. And when a child grows up knowing that he is not his own, there is no trauma, and this does not interfere with emotional closeness with foster parents.

Difference #16: Child Benefits Cover All Child Expenses

Foster parents receive a salary and money to support the child. But at the same time, foster families must have an alternative source of income, that is, they must not depend on payments for the child.

Weekly payments come from the municipality - from the place where a dysfunctional family is identified. The social worker, together with the family, draws up a financial plan for managing children's money - calculates how much the child will go for pocket expenses, and how much they should save as his savings for the future. The money for the maintenance of the child fully covers the costs of the family for him, the purpose of the plan is to show how they can be managed without limiting the child, but without involving the alternative income of the adoptive parent. No one asks for checks!

But in communication, which takes place at least once a month, the social worker looks at how the child is dressed, what his room looks like, what he eats. If something worries a specialist, he can increase the number of visits to the family, come without the consent of the family, for example, at lunchtime - to see what the child is fed, or during joint family events - to see how they communicate, what emotions they have relation to each other.

As far as I understood, the claims: “Yeah, you take children into the family not for love, but for money!” – are also heard in Britain. But experts answer them: “We select foster parents, we control them, we are the same who taught them: we know these people. And then, there are a lot of easier ways to make money than looking after abandoned, difficult children.”

In our country, due to the separation of the functions of checking the family and accompanying it, abuse is possible: when a family from the village, having no other source of income, takes orphans to raise. And at the same time, a negative attitude (and often from their own guardianship!) - “taken for money” - haunts many wonderful families who put their heart and soul into raising adopted children.

Difference #17: Foster Family Can't Move Without Guardian Permission

Any foster family is hired. She does not have full rights to the child and cannot make a number of decisions for him.

This rule is now being reviewed, adjusted in Britain, because it causes some problems. For example, it turned out that foster families have to coordinate too much with the municipality, which worsens the situation of children.

The class is traveling and the foster parent must apply to the municipality for permission to send the child with the class. While the approvals are underway, everyone has already left! Or a parent can't let a foster child go to a friend's sleepover. Now the British are reviewing this situation so that foster moms and dads have more freedom, and such restrictions do not worsen the position of adopted children relative to blood.

Since the family is hired, the issue of moving to another city is also agreed with the municipality. It is preferable that the family moves with the child, of course, but if there are no conditions in the new city to meet his needs, a refusal may follow. The family must be checked at the foster agency in the new location, all information about them is transferred there. And the municipality must give its consent to the move.

Difference No. 18: Families prepare specially for young parents

Parents who, for some reason, cannot take care of the child on their own can be placed in foster families. For example, young parents: a 15-year-old orphan girl and her newborn child.

We had such cases in the Smolensk region. In one case, a girl who had recently given birth from an orphanage, along with a boyfriend, the father of the child, ended up in a foster family, but did not take root there - apparently, it was difficult for them to adjust to the family way after so many years in the orphanage. And in another case, a girl from the institution lives with her baby in a foster family.

But in our country such situations are considered as a special case, out of the ordinary, and there - the possibility of such a device is taken into account, it is assessed whether certain adoptive parents are ready to accept such teenagers. That is, in our country, first a case occurs, and then a family is searched for it, and their families are prepared for such cases.

Difference #19: Helping a difficult child fit in with normal life

If a child does not take root in a foster family, if he has such complex psychological characteristics or disorders that no efforts of social services help, he is placed in an institution. Ours is an orphanage. But this is not some institution far from the city.

This is an ordinary house on an ordinary street, without any identification marks - it does not stand out in any way. Up to 6 (!) adolescent children live there, who have already had to go through a rather difficult life path: some of them participated in crimes, were members of gangs, some were involved in drug trafficking, some were engaged in self-mutilation - they inflicted injuries, there are children who have been sexually abused and exploited, children who often run away from foster families and have problems with the law.

The main task of this orphanage is to help such children to believe in themselves.

They were abandoned by their families and adoptive parents, they have low self-esteem, they feel worthless. Specialists in the orphanage work so that such children accept themselves as they are, accept the circumstances of their lives and everything that happened in it, learn to cope with their emotions, manage their lives, behavior, money, learn to choose friends correctly and, most importantly, merged into normal life.

In especially severe cases, the child studies in an orphanage with tutors, but in order to still go to study where everyone studies, get a profession where everyone gets it, learn to live in the real world, and not in an artificially created space for him . There are no special schools at the orphanage; children go to ordinary educational institutions.

Difference No. 20: Whether to clean the room is the choice of the child

An important condition for the upbringing of difficult adolescents, even in an institution, is respect for their boundaries and freedom.

Although difficult teenagers with a criminal record wear a special police bracelet to control their movements. However, personal freedom is respected.

So a child's room is his space, where an adult cannot enter without knocking. We often have the director of the orphanage leading the inspectors or volunteers through all the rooms: “Meet the children!”, And this happens several times a week. Right there - we were not even offered to come in, with or without a knock. There are no attempts to invade their personal space!

Children are given pocket money, but if they break the rules, they can spend it only under supervision. The amount of pocket money depends on their behavior: let's say no one forces children to clean their room, but everyone knows that if you don't clean the room, the amount of pocket money will be less. That is, instead of punishment - choice.

There are 12 teachers for 4 children, and two of them are with the children at night, and three during the day. In our sponsored orphanage, the role of an educator is very often performed by a video camera, which kills the meaning of the home conditions that they are trying to create there. We often take a formal approach.

In 2015, the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 481 “On the activities of organizations for orphans” appeared, and it, in particular, implies the creation of conditions in the institution that are close to family ones. But this respect for the child's personal space is still in its infancy.

Staying in an orphanage should stop being the norm

It is believed that our guardianship system is about 50 years behind the British in development. But it was gratifying to know that this was not entirely true. The British system itself began to change relatively recently - the so-called Children's Act came into force only in 1989, that is, less than 30 years ago.

Today, our country is beginning to move in the same direction, but work often begins at the moment when the child has already entered the institution, and not at the moment when some kind of crisis has just begun in the family.

Decree No. 481, which appeared in 2015, essentially changes the role of the orphanage in the life of a child, positions it as a temporary device, which should also be minimally different from a family stay. But the main goal is to stop being in an orphanage and be perceived as a normal, stable situation.

We already have an understanding of the benefits of a child's life in a family, and not in an institution, we have already come to the topic of preserving the birth family. But ideologically and everywhere this has not yet been accepted: it is still believed that collective education is sometimes better than family education, that a good orphanage is better than a poor family.

In our country, unfortunately, the functions of guardianship authorities are reduced to control - there is actually no assistance and support. And the foster family, raising a child, is faced with a huge number of issues that develop into difficulties - they have no one to go to with this, so as not to get hit on the head, not to achieve increased attention to them from the guardianship authorities and the removal of the child, but to get help.

Welcome

Find us on iTunes!

Popular Posts