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The extent of private foster care is unknown. What is known, however, is that unless social services gain more knowledge of such arrangements, many children's lives could be at risk, writes Bob Holman.

Private fostering is a changing and growing issue that concerns around 10,000 vulnerable children. Having conducted the first major study of private fostering in the 1960s,¹ I have carried out further research recently that shows that the nature of private fostering has changed.

West African parents who place children often work long hours, live in poor accommodation and are sometimes studying part-time. For them private fostering seems to be the only option. Some parents resident in West Africa also send their children to foster carers in Britain to escape the civil unrest and lack of opportunities in their home countries.

Most of these black children are placed with white carers, many of whom do not deal well with matters of race and culture. Risks to the children are intensified if the natural parents do not visit regularly. Indeed, a lack of contact can mean that the private foster carers eventually refuse to hand back the children, so leading to struggles in the courts over residence and adoption orders.

There are also now more children placed with private foster carers by refugees and asylum seekers. Asylum seekers may use private fostering if they want to work. If they are in the country illegally, they are likely to turn to the kind of foster carers who do not notify the social services departments about the children - and their parents - when they receive them. Consequently, the children will not be supervised by social workers.

There are also a growing number of teenagers who are apparently living away from their parents. I know myself of teenagers whose aggressive behaviour has prompted their parents to persuade neighbours or friends to take them.

One social worker sent me these examples of privately fostered teenagers: a 14-year-old boy living with a 21-year-old man; a 15-year-old girl staying with a friend of her mother's following physical assault by her stepfather; and a 15-year-old boy in his second private foster home, which was with a woman whom he met through his girlfriend. The behaviour of these adolescents often seemed to prove too much for the private foster carers as well as the parents.

Another group of privately fostered children are language students. Children from abroad attending language schools or on cultural exchanges who are boarded out with private families for periods exceeding 28 days also come within the scope of the private fostering regulations.

Probably, most students are placed with safe carers but one report from a police force, covering 15 months, uncovered 550 incidents of neglect, and emotional and sexual abuse. They included a lack of food, gross overcrowding and rape. The language schools did not properly vet the carers, while social workers did not seem to be involved at all. The police investigation had been sparked off after they learned of a 12-year-old boy being lodged with a known sex offender.

There may be other kinds of private fostering of which even less is known. Some overseas children have been brought to the UK for adoption but, because of irregularities, have not come within the scope of pre-adoptive children and so are technically privately fostered. Pupils at certain independent boarding schools who are placed with non-relatives during school holidays are also private foster children.

One director of a social work department told me of drug abusers who, unable to cope with their children, placed them with neighbours. Others may do so while attending rehabilitation centres.

Helping them and their carers requires regular visits from social workers who possess child care expertise. However, a survey published this year by the Association of Directors of Social Services² shows that only 16 of the 179 social services authorities in England and Wales had a "dedicated", that is specialist, private fostering worker. Improvements are essential for the well-being of privately fostered children. CC

¹ B Holman, Trading in Children, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973

² ADSS Survey February 2001: Local Authorities and Private Fostering, ADSS, 2001

Bob Holman's study, The Unknown Fostering, will be published by Russell House Publishing in January. Bob Holman is associated with a locally run project in Easterhouse, Glasgow