Children in residential care should be given the opportunity to live in a family environment, National Foster Care Association president Jason Zerafa said.

Speaking this evening during the launch of a survey, which looked into the perceptions and concerns of the 180 foster carers in Malta, he said that currently, parental consent is needed for children in residential homes to be fostered but international research has proven fostering to be the better option.

Foster carers, he said, proposed that children in residential care whose parents refused to allow them to be fostered should still be given the opportunity to live in a family environment.

Existing legislation, he insisted, should be amended for fostered children to enjoy more stability.

Mr Zerafa said that children whose natural parents remained absent from their life for an extended period should be allowed to live permanently with their foster carers.

This would enable them to have stability and a home, even if they retained contact with their biological parents.

Foster carers, Mr Zerafa said, felt there was the need for better legislation to promote the rights of the children they cared for.

Carers pointed out that fostered children were usually labelled as naughty by their teachers, who would not be aware of their reality.

These children would have gone through the traumatic experience of changing their environment and moving into a foster home. Often, they would have come from a difficult family background.

Carers also called for training on how to deal with the children's behavioural issues.

The foster carers called for financial assistance, which, they said could he given in the form of subsidies on utility bills or by helping with therapy expense.

The association, set up in 2005, will be sifting through the survey results and prepare a document suggesting the way forward. The document will then be presented to the government, political parties and the Church.