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Sarah Richardson |
Now race is an issue with foster care
Recruitment drive makes special appeal to Asians, after carers’ ethnicity dubbed ‘irrelevant’
RACE was defiantly decried as “irrelevant”, when the council was asked why there were so few ethnic minority foster parents.
But that was six weeks ago. Now Westminster City Council has launched a recruitment drive to persuade minority groups to take children in care.
Tory colleagues clearly told Councillor Aziz Toki race was not important when he put the question to a packed council chamber in July.
Children’s champion, Sarah Richardson, said ethnic background was “irrelevant… what matters is placing a child in a loving, dedicated home”.
Since that heated exchange, childcare bosses appear to have changed their tune. Leaders of minority groups, especially Asians, have received letters appealing to them to take on the burgeoning number of Bangladeshi children in care the system.
Cllr Toki claims placing children from one ethnic background with parents from another can “psychologically torture” the child.
Ninety children in Westminster’s care live in foster homes and about 10 per cent are of Bangladeshi origin, mainly living in the north of the borough. Recent figures reveal a disproportionate number of white carers to the numbers of white children. Fifty-five per cent of foster parents were white, but only 26 per cent of the children were from the same background.
Cllr Toki, who represents Church Street ward, welcomed the move, but asked whether the children’s department fully understood the nuances of race, culture and parenting.
“It’s very well producing figures which show Westminster employs ethnic minority foster parents. But the term ethnic minority is not that useful. There is a big difference between Bangladeshis and Indians, West Africans and people from the Caribbean and I’m worried these are overlooked. It’s a cultural, and language thing,” he said.
He added: “I’ve had parents coming to me, saying they could no longer communicate with their children when they return from care because they can’t speak the mother tongue. This is totally wrong and is literally robbing children of their heritage. We had a case where a mother and son couldn’t talk to each other. That could psychologically damage him in later life. Love, care and dedication is important but background is too.”
Carers are paid a fee and an allowance for the costs of caring for a child. The council said carers on its specialist scheme “…can earn up to £40,000 a year”. Last year it approved nine new foster carers. Leading the call for foster carers, Councillor Nickie Aiken, of the children and young people policy and scrutiny committee said: “Anyone considering could change a child’s life forever.
“People do not have to have a big house, be in work, be in a couple, or have their own children.”
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Call 0800 0322 593 or email fostering@west-minster.gov.uk for more information. |
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