At Rainbow Fostering we pride ourselves in being a community of lively minds. Our Foster carers come from all walks of life and have a wealth of different experiences. Nothing gives us greater pleasure than when these can be shared. We think fostering is something that depends on having a point of view – something always to be positively encouraged. There will be occasions when a foster carer will need to be a powerful and confident advocate for the child or young person they are caring for. At Rainbow, we encourage opinion and the exchange of ideas. It makes our fostering community stronger – a place where our children and young people can also grow as individuals.  

Thank you to Raj for his considered and wide-ranging thoughts on the pandemic.

Foster care against the background of a global pandemic.

Foster carers, along with the rest of us, are seeing every day on the news the rising numbers of covid infections. Tragically, this has been mirrored by the numbers of deaths. And we are certainly not out of the woods yet, despite the welcome development of vaccines. It has to be wondered what the public mood would have been if science had not come to the rescue on this front. My impression is this blessing has, nonetheless, resulted in large numbers of people becoming complacent. It is reported that there is less compliance now than the first time around. Much of this is anecdotal: accounts of more traffic on the roads, for example. Such behaviour is now only being tempered by stories in the media of new mutant strains of coronavirus emanating from places like Brazil and South Africa. And in Kent, we now have our own new variant. 

An unprecedented global effort.

People in significant numbers continue to flout the regulations, and this in spite of the nightly screenings of overflowing intensive care units up and down the country. It looks like whatever happens, there is a collective faith in science quickly coming up with the answer. Perhaps this explains some of the more reckless behaviour being seen. The success has certainly been remarkable when set against the time it has taken to develop vaccines in the past. When the scientific community started looking for a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus early in 2020, they were careful to be both realistic and pragmatic. So, given the events of the past year, it is sobering to think that the fastest any vaccine had previously been developed was four years: this was in the 1960s for protection against mumps, which from our vantage point now, seems an eternity ago. Usually, it takes between ten to fifteen years to develop a vaccine making recent and rapid progress all the more remarkable. The world only had to wait until December 2nd for Pfizer, together with the German biotech firm BioNTech, to produce the first fully-tested immunisation to be approved for emergency use. It’s important to point out that this happened because of the massive global funding resulting from the shared sense of political and social urgency. We must not forget that COVID 19 vaccines emerged quickly because there had been many years of previous research on related viruses. Manufacturing technology also played a vital role which, combined with near stratospheric levels of funding, enabled firms to run multiple trials in parallel. Most importantly of all, there was the political will across the globe. It’s sobering to remember vaccines are still urgently required for diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and pneumonia. Combined together, these still kill millions of people annually. 

Worryingly, scientific researchers anticipate there will be future pandemics. And any one of these might be significantly more lethal than COVID 19. The current crisis has at least accelerated the future of vaccine science. Dan Barouch is the director of the Centre for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard Medical School in Boston: 

“it now shows how fast vaccine development can proceed when there is a true global emergency and sufficient resources. New ways of making vaccines, such as by using messenger RNA (mRNA), have been validated by the COVID-19 response, he adds. “It has shown that the development process can be accelerated substantially without compromising on safety.”

It’s also very important to remember the research that has resulted in the vaccines we now have, did not begin with COVID 19. Researchers had been investigating related coronaviruses responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as well as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The rapid progress made this year was founded upon years of scientific research into these conditions. Some think we have been lucky. The appearance of a different pathogen about which little was known, could cause humanity problems of an entirely different order to the current ones. 

There should be a lot more effort put into educating the wider public about vaccines. There is little doubt that many have become complacent: science seems to have saved us again. Such thinking is naive especially if the economic devastation caused worldwide is taken into account. Countries may simply not be able to afford the costs of dealing with a new, perhaps more lethal, pathogen. 

To cope with the crisis, in a little over ten months chancellor Rishi Sunak has borrowed more than Gordon Brown did in ten years. Let that sink in. The point is that if we are suddenly confronted by another virus, we will probably not be in a financial position to deal with it. As things stand, it will probably take years to recover the financial position. It should also be realised that all this borrowing has taken place against a background of interest rates that are at historically low levels. The economy remains in a perilous position since the smallest upward movement in rates – a mere fraction of a percentage point – will add millions more to the current debt. 

Foster care will come under more pressure.

The social costs of the pandemic have been grievous: education for huge numbers of young people derailed, unemployment, poverty, domestic abuse and large numbers of children put at serious risk. During the first lockdown, there was a tragic rise of 20% in the numbers of babies being killed or injured. This was revealed back in November by Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector. Spielman is right to talk about the unprecedented pressure brought about by the pandemic Some of her findings:

• in England 64 babies were harmed deliberately;
• eight of the babies that were harmed died;
• around forty per cent of the three hundred reported incidents involved infants – an increase of a fifth on 2019 figures.

We cannot forget the sheer numbers of people who have lost their lives to the pandemic. At the time of writing, we are not even at the peak of the third wave. It’s inevitable that in the next few days, the figure for those killed in the UK will have gone over 100,000. With hospitals at breaking point and the entire health system under the greatest strain it has faced in its history, now it’s anyone’s guess how many more deaths from other causes will result. Only time will tell – but the  figure is likely to run into the tens of thousands. 

Amanda Spielman has asked all those who work professionally with children to be on high alert during this lockdown: 

“Everyone needs to play their role. That includes professionals across whole communities. Midwives, health visitors, GPs and other health workers who have good relationships with families and can build on that trust. Staff working in schools and nurseries who may have information about a vulnerable infant because an older sibling attends the setting. And help for younger parents is important, but without labelling or patronising them. Building their trust so that they accept advice and learn how to look after their children safely.”

COVID 19 has obscured the view many professionals have into the lives of families up-and-down the country. Jenny Coles is the President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and holds the view that COVID 19 was and is adding significantly to the many and varied difficulties faced by families: “The pandemic has seriously disrupted a key line of sight into the lives and homes of many families.”

The views of both Amanda Spielman and Jenny Coles illustrate the wider effects of a pandemic that is far from over. They are pressingly relevant for such knock-on effects will be reverberating through society for a long time time. 

Going forward, the pandemic will have caused profound structural changes to employment. This could represent an enormous opportunity for fostering service providers. The pandemic will have resulted in significant numbers used to the idea of home working. The shortage of foster carers has been steadily increasing: a problem exacerbated by experienced carers retiring. The sector needs to attract much younger people. A study in 2001 showed the average age of a female foster carer was forty-six. Currently, it is fifty-three. Over the same period of time, the average age for male foster carers has increased from forty-seven to fifty-four. Carers are in short supply the labour force is ageing. To use a popular term, we are overdue a ‘reset’. It’s time to reposition fostering and the role of foster carers. The Fostering Network is adamant that fostering should now be thought of as a profession. It is undeniable that in recent years fostering has developed into many specialist areas requiring in-depth training and knowledge. Parent and Child fostering and therapeutic fostering are prime examples. Carers in these disciplines will be expected to liaise with a broad range of professionals including social workers and clinical psychologists. If fostering is presented as a profession with opportunities for ongoing career development, it will be perceived very differently. With this should come huge recruitment opportunities and the possibility of attracting younger people into fostering. If the messaging can be got right, foster care could become a sought after vocation for those who already have considerable related experience of working with children and young people. The government should be alive to this: perhaps one of the best examples of that seasoned adage of ‘the opportunity that lies within every crisis.’

Names are changed and all views expressed are personal ones.

Foster with Rainbow for an amazing career.

Fostering is rewarding but it’s also challenging. We get a great many referrals for vulnerable children needing to be fostered. So, have a think, could you foster someone like Martin?

Martin is 12 and his family have been known to social services for a number of years. This is because his parents have both engaged in substance misuse – particularly his father. This has made Martin’s home environment unstable and at times chaotic. Not unnaturally, Martin is angry a lot of the time and this affects his schoolwork. But his teachers report he is a bright little boy. Martin needs foster carers who can see beyond his difficult behaviours and understand they are a reaction to his troubled circumstances. We know that Martin will benefit from being with foster carers who can set boundaries, show empathy and understanding, establish routines in a  home that is secure and stable. 

Rainbow train foster carers to make the difference to young lives like Martin’s. We are a supportive sharing community looking for more people to join us.  

Rainbow has been rated ‘Outstanding in all areas’ by Ofsted. This means our applicants and foster carers can depend on receiving the best support, guidance and training available.

Find out more about the varied career opportunities fostering now offers. Call our team on 0330 311 2845 today to find out about the opportunities we have in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Hampshire

Fostering is open to people who are (over 21) married, divorced, single or cohabiting. You can foster children or young people whatever your sexual orientation, ethnicity or cultural background. There is no upper age limit to being a foster carer. You should be reasonably fit. You do not have to own your own home.

Now another national lockdown is in force, we are holding initial interviews online via Skype. So you can apply to foster with us right now. It’s an easy process – a member of our recruitment team will be available to help you.

Today’s recommended blog can be found at:

Please make sure and check the latest advice and guidance to stay safe and well – visit – https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/coronavirus

All our contact details and regional office locations can be found via the link below. If you prefer, you can leave your contact details on our website and arrange for a member of our team to call you later at a time to suit you. We very much look forward to hearing from you! 

Everyone remember Hands, Face, Space – protect the NHS. http://rainbowfostering.co.uk/contact/

The post Foster carers opinions will matter in this pandemic appeared first on Rainbow.