With the number of looked-after children in Wales having risen by 34 per cent in the last 15 years, and with nearly 10 per cent of children in care having been in three or more placements, Welsh Conservatives yesterday called on the Welsh Government to assist in recruiting 550 Welsh foster families and to investigate the support available to adoptive parents.
In their debate on Looked-after Children, they also called for an urgent review of local authority plans on reducing the numbers of looked-after children, and called on the Welsh Government to ensure parents and guardians receive free positive parenting courses.
Closing the debate, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood said:
“As Janet Finch-Saunders said, the situation in Wales is currently slipping out of control with the number of looked-after children rising 34 per cent over 15 years, 6,845 children between nought and 18 currently looked after by local authorities, and the number of looked-after children in Wales per 10,000 now far higher than in England and Northern Ireland, and also higher than in Scotland on the latest published figures.
“She talked about the Justice Commission being sceptical about the effectiveness of expenditure in Wales to date on this agenda, and the need to prioritise early intervention in practice to reduce the number of children going into care and to improve life chances”.
Mr Isherwood noted that children going into care are five times more likely to suffer mental health conditions than children not in care and that care leavers are at increased risk of homelessness and poverty, and said we therefore need to know just how much is being targeted at looked-after children and also how this is being monitored.
He also agreed with the point raised by Suzy Davies AM that the system must respond to the needs of children and not vice versa, and the point made by Caroline Jones AM about the need to break the cycle of a poor start in life leading to poor life chances.
The motion without amendment was agreed with 41 voting for and only 10 against.
