National Siblings Day
10th April 2022
Why is National Siblings Day important for children in foster care?
The relationship between a brother and a sister is unique and invaluable in the life of any person. Spending time together growing up and learning from one another can be pivotal to a child’s life. For children who are in foster care they can often be separated from their siblings, due to a variety of reasons.
Did you know that thousands of children have been separated from their brothers and sisters by the UK care system. Ashley John-Baptiste, a BBC Journalist and Broadcaster, heard from those whose lives have been changed forever, in a fascinating documentary called ‘Split Up in Care’. You can watch this in full on iPlayer here; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bbc9c5
What are ‘we’/society doing to help?
The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, told the BBC that she would support a new law to keep siblings together. A new report has recently been published (January 2022) which has been based on the views of 6,000 children in care.
The report found that “children in children’s homes were much more likely than other children to rank friendships as a top concern, we think this is because frequent moves will have undermined their ability to maintain links with friends.” Ultimately, siblings, friends, birth families and previous foster families are all vital to support children to flourish.
England and Wales are yet to see the same legal protections which have recently been implemented in Scotland to keep siblings together, as a result of this Dame Rachel de Souza supports the ratification of this into law. At FCL Fostering we would also like to see this implemented into law to really benefit the children.
What can I do?
