Sixty-five per cent of children now coming into care – some going straight to Foster Carers – have experienced some degree of trauma. This is the result of abuse or neglect. Such a situation is having profound effects on fostering service provision in this country. In the past, this country has been able to rely on the sterling efforts of large numbers of mainstream foster carers. Sadly, for many children, family life has meant little more than exposure to chaos – sometimes violence. Some have had to put up with sexual abuse and also witnessed drug and alcohol misuse. Many more experience the kind of low-level neglect that means they may be poorly nourished and certainly never get given a book.

Such growing numbers of children have resulted in more of the local authorities requesting placements where the foster carers have been trained to support children with trauma. The risk of placements breaking down is high where foster carers lack the experience to cope with behaviour that can be extremely challenging. The pressure is on to add to the numbers of foster carers who are trained therapeutically. If foster children experience multiple placement breakdowns when they are already suffering from the effects of trauma, their chances of recovery are significantly diminished.

Section 22(3) of the 1989 Children Act defines the general duty of a local authority in relation to looking after a child and safeguarding and promoting their welfare. This duty then underpins all the activities of a local authority regarding ‘looked after children’. This duty has become generally known as ‘corporate parenting’. Put simply, ‘corporate parenting’ is taken to mean the collective responsibility of the council, its elected members and employees – along with other partner agencies, for providing the best possible care and safeguarding of the children they look after. This is placing local authorities under increasing strain. It means that when children are traumatised and have complex needs, they have to be found placements that are appropriate for those needs. With a shortage of foster carers generally – in England alone, it is estimated that our fostering services still need to recruit an additional 6,800 families – the problem is evident.

Foster carers and teachers experience the effects of children with trauma

The effects of trauma are now beginning to be felt in the classroom. Teachers are being encouraged to understand support strategies of a specific nature are needed to cope with the numerous behavioural issues arising from trauma. Two experts – Eamon McCrory, professor, developmental neuroscience and psychopathology at University College London, UCL – along with Essi Viding, professor of Developmental Psychopathology at UCL, have been speaking on this weeks Pedagogy podcast. They have been explaining how trauma affects childhood development and behaviour and identifying strategies to help teachers to deal with it.

Experiences of adversity in early life and the impact of trauma affect brain development. The goal is to understand more fully the precise nature of these effects. professor McCrory explains:

“The impact of adversity forces the child to adapt in ways that will help them cope in an environment that is chaotic or unpredictable and those adaptations occur in autobiographical memory functioning, their threat-processing, their reward-processing – these systems calibrate to protect the child in that environment. But once they move into a school environment, then those adaptations can cause problems.”

An easy to comprehend example of this is given: if a young child has had to survive in a household that is violent, they can become ‘hypervigilant’. In school, such a child can overestimate threat levels which can trigger disruptive behaviour. Other patterns of behaviour that may result include physical violence as well as the inability to form social bonds. Teachers need to be aware of the reason for such traits, but this can be problematic as they may not be informed about the impacts of trauma. A teacher may see such behaviour as merely a child ‘playing up’. Managing this kind of disruption from a single child can have an effect on an entire class. This makes the job of teaching challenging to say the least. A different approach has been called for. Professor Essi Viding thinks that:

“you cannot scupper education for 29 children because there is one child unable to engage with mainstream education,” she says. “The aim ought to be that, yes, this child should have specialist provision, but with the view that they can be reintegrated into the mainstream provision. At the moment that is very difficult in the British school system.”

It is stressed that trauma should not be seen as having damaged the brain, or indeed that trauma can bring about irreversible changes. Professor McCrory’s view is that:

“What we are seeing is that these changes are adaptive…and there is no reason these systems cannot recalibrate. A new set of environmental experiences can lead to new calibrations. Plasticity continues into early adulthood.”

More therapeutically trained foster carers can make a wider difference

It is important that the work produced by McCrory and Viding ‘goes on general release’ so to speak. There will be an increasing need for therapeutically trained foster carers to – as part of their training – come to an understanding of the effects and impact of trauma. Ideally, a  carer should be able to form a collaborative relationship with a teacher. It should be possible to align their training in key areas. After all, both will have the aim of producing the best outcome for a child who has trauma. Such  cooperation can only have beneficial effects. It will be an extremely positive step if two professionals are able to collaborate around the support of a foster child with trauma to mitigate its effects.

There is another reason, such a move should be actively encouraged: dealing with disruption in the classroom has to be made a priority. This is because it is having a damaging effect on teachers with more of them succumbing to mental health problems – often caused by the disruptive behaviour of pupils. Problems recruiting therapeutic foster carers mirrored by difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers will be to the ultimate detriment of vulnerable children with trauma.

Team Rainbow is looking for people to take up the challenge of therapeutic foster care

Be special. Be a foster carer. Be one of us! At Rainbow we have trained and supported a large community of dedicated foster carers. Each of them has made an incredible difference in the lives of vulnerable children and youngsters. Find out more about how you can become a therapeutic foster carer with Rainbow at https://bit.ly/2OkgCzS If you are already a therapeutic foster carer and would like to find out more about the tangible benefits of transferring to Rainbow – visit https://bit.ly/2RnQrdd

You can get in touch with us right now on 020 8427 3355 or our special National Foster Care Line is 0330 311 2845. Rainbow welcomes all applicants to foster – whatever their status, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or cultural background. If you already have professional experience of working with children, we would like to talk to you about the possibilities there are in therapeutic foster care. You visit https://bit.ly/2N4L0Bn to discover more about this specialist area of foster care.

Rainbow also provide interesting news and general features at https://bit.ly/2kJHpsO

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