Hard on the heels of concerns about unprecedented demands on the family courts, comes a report from the Fostering Network confirming a national shortfall of approximately 10,000 foster placements - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10869171
The report’s title – “Bursting at the Seams” – says it all.
This is more proof that the whole care system is under extreme pressure. And it should signal caution in calling for care proceedings to be speeded up, because the huge shortage of foster placements could result in having even more children in care with nowhere suitable to place them.
There needs to be an urgent review of what to do about the rise in care proceedings since the Baby Peter tragedy. This is not a blip, but a sustained trend that threatens to tax the system to its limits so putting children in dangerous situations.
Ministers need to act now.
