House starts foster care debate

The Foster Care Bill started being debated in Parliament yesterday, with Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina calling it "innovative" because this would be the first law of its kind in Malta.

Mrs Cristina said the overriding aim of this Bill involved the children's best interests.

This law followed up other legislation which had a similar purpose, such as that creating the Office of the Commissioner for Children and the updating of the regime on care orders. Other legislation in the pipeline included modern provisions on adoption.

Malta already had administrative and support structures which allowed foster care, but proper legislation was needed to balance rights and obligations.

Foster carers performed an important role, giving children who could not live with their families a family atmosphere of stability and love. There could be various reasons why children could not live with their families. A parent might have died or been imprisoned. There could be problems stemming from drug or physical abuse, lack of care of the children, inability to care for children or family breakdowns. No one should judge the circumstances which some people had to suffer.

Mrs Cristina underlined the temporary nature of foster care and said foster carers thus had a particularly difficult job. Some lovingly cared for children for many years, only to then have to return them to their natural families. She was pleased, however, that Maltese foster carers had realised this.

The minister traced the evolution of fostering, noting how fostering was often practised informally as the offspring of large families moved in with other relatives.

Children also started living in institutions, but in the second half of the last century the word "fostering" was coined when it was realised that living in a family atmosphere was better than living in an institution. She stressed, however, that this did not in any way diminish the valuable, loving service which was being given by Church-run children's homes in Malta. In the 1980s the Social Welfare Centre in Malta had created a unit for foster care, and in 1995 the PN government had set up a working group to study how the concept of foster care could be formally developed. In the 1990s a manual of procedures was issued, enabling the professionals to give the best possible service to potential foster carers.

There was currently a dynamic team of seven full-timers and two part-timers within the Fostering Unit at Appogg who worked in foster care services, helping the people who were most vulnerable. Procedures were under way to recruit more, but a particular problem which fostering was facing in Malta was a shortage of qualified professionals to support and administer the foster care service.

Mrs Cristina praised and thanked foster carers for their services, which they gave free of charge other than for the child-in-care benefit and children's allowances.

In eight years the number of foster carers had risen from 27 to 153, something which did the country proud. The number of children living with foster carers had risen from 28 to 180 during the same period.

The minister said there were different types of foster care. There was respite fostering, where foster carers cared for children, such as those having difficulties, to give a rest to parents for a brief period. There was emergency fostering, where a group of foster carers took children under their wing, such as, for example, when parents suffered an accident and there was no one to care for the children. There was also short-term fostering, up to a few months, when the natural family was undergoing a turbulent period. And then there was long-term fostering, offered to children who were unlikely to be united with their natural families for several years. The last form was next-of-kin fostering.

Mrs Cristina said an area where more focus was needed in the coming years was the provision of support structures for foster carers.

Malta needed considerably more foster carers, and all those who wished to provide such a service should approach the Fostering Unit so that their suitability could be assessed and they could be trained.

Central to this Bill, Mrs Cristina said, was the clause providing that a foster carer "shall ensure that the child placed in his care shall be cared for, maintained, instructed and educated according to the child's abilities, aspirations and natural inclinations. The child shall also have access to the social worker who is taking care of the placement."

Speaking on the provisions of the Bill, the minister said a Fostering Board would be set up to review Home Study Reports drawn up by social workers in accredited agencies; determine the suitability of prospective foster carers; specify what type of foster care may be provided by each foster carer; keep an updated register of foster carers; review complaints against foster carers and act accordingly; and make recommendations to the minister on the establishment of training programmes and implementation of the law.

The board would include a chairman and a minimum of four members representing professionals from different disciplines and a person who, in the opinion of the minister, would have adequate knowledge in the area of foster care. Where possible, the minister would appoint to the board an adult who had been in foster care as a child and a person who was a foster carer.

There would also be a Central Authority which would have a regulatory role and set the standards for foster care. It would receive and consider applications for accreditation to agencies providing foster care services and investigate any complaints against such agencies. The authority would also consider requests from foreigners who are approved as foster carers abroad and who, through an accredited agency, request to be recognised as foster carers.

The authority will consider applications from agencies which would like to carry out cross-border foster care.

An appeals board will review decisions by the Fostering Board and the Central Authority.

The Bill lists the functions of accredited agencies, including their duties to train and support foster carers, match foster carers with children including, as far as possible, placing siblings with the same foster carers; monitor foster care placements and investigate complaints against any foster carer.

The Bill lays down that a foster carer shall have the rights and duties listed in the foster care agreement with the agency. Such an agreement has to be in the best interests of the child and will include the extent to which the foster carer may take decisions with regard to the child, the frequency of contact of the child with the natural parents, the child's care plan, matters of education, health and maintenance of the child and any other matter pertinent to the child, Mrs Cristina said.

The debate continues on Monday.