PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Foster Care: Coronavirus (9 November 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to protect foster carers from covid-19 when facilitating meetings between foster children and birth parents, who reside in areas where the number of covid-19 cases is very high.

Asked by:
Charlotte Nichols (Labour)

We expect that contact between children in care and their birth relatives will continue. It is essential for children and families to remain in touch at this difficult time, and for many children, the consequences of not seeing relatives would be traumatic. We expect the spirit of any court-ordered contact in relation to children in care to be maintained. However, there may be local or individual circumstances where face-to-face contact may not be possible, including where members of households are isolating or continuing to take precautions due to clinical vulnerability.

Contact arrangements should be assessed on a case by case basis taking a range of factors into account, including the government’s current social distancing guidance, guidance for children’s social care and the needs of the child. This guidance is can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing and: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care.

To facilitate any contact that is deemed appropriate, the fostering service should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to the foster carers. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care#fostering.

Answered by:
Vicky Ford (Conservative)
16 November 2020