Adults to get foster care

[Gibbon]

But they haven't got any parents, so if the foster parents weren't getting help then they would have no-one.

Maybe i'm not making my point very well.

In any event, my personal opinion is I just think they have had enough of a rough ride already, if some extra help can be given, (especially since the government, seem to give billions to help other country's children/disadvantaged), it's a small contribution to continue to help our own who got a crap start .

After all, as taxpayers, through the government, pay for benefits for people who choose not to work, these kids didn't choose (in the majority of cases)to be fostered.

+1000

At the moment they're turfed out of care/foster at 18 into unsuitable accommodation with no immediate or extended familial support and a lot can't cope. Their future is pretty easy to predict and bleak, give them a bit more time to transition themselves into independence and there is a greater chance they will become a functioning, contributing member of the community.

[Cliphead]

+1000

At the moment they're turfed out of care/foster at 18 into unsuitable accommodation with no immediate or extended familial support and a lot can't cope. Their future is pretty easy to predict and bleak, give them a bit more time to transition themselves into independence and there is a greater chance they will become a functioning, contributing member of the community.

Well said.

I know people who foster and what you say is true in the vast majority of cases.

[KentPhilip]

I'm 43 and am still in Fosters care..

[VectraMan]

+1000

At the moment they're turfed out of care/foster at 18 into unsuitable accommodation with no immediate or extended familial support and a lot can't cope. Their future is pretty easy to predict and bleak, give them a bit more time to transition themselves into independence and there is a greater chance they will become a functioning, contributing member of the community.

So hang on, you're saying that as soon as they're 18 their foster parents kick them out and drop all contact because they're no longer getting a government cheque, but now that they're getting some cash the same people are going to provide love, help and support to a struggling 18 year old to help them become a functioning, contributing member of the community?

If the parents really are only in it for the money, as the bad image of foster parenting seen on films and TV sometimes suggests, then the kids are probably better off on their own. If foster parents really are loving, caring people, then they're not going to stop offering that 18 year old help and support just because the cash has stopped.

[aardvark]

Kids over 18 mostly still need parents. Being a foster parent is a job. I suspect many are continuing to help their charges after they're 18, but why should they? You wouldn't carry on working for clientCo out of a sense of duty if the money stopped.

[aardvark]

So hang on, you're saying that as soon as they're 18 their foster parents kick them out and drop all contact because they're no longer getting a government cheque, but now that they're getting some cash the same people are going to provide love, help and support to a struggling 18 year old to help them become a functioning, contributing member of the community?

If the parents really are only in it for the money, as the bad image of foster parenting seen on films and TV sometimes suggests, then the kids are probably better off on their own. If foster parents really are loving, caring people, then they're not going to stop offering that 18 year old help and support just because the cash has stopped.

The girl on the telly had been with the family for two years - why do you think they're morally obliged to continue to look after her? It's not like adoption where you become the parent, it's a job - many foster carers have 20, 30 kids go through their doors in their careers - to expect them to support them all after 18 for free is daft.

[Platypus]

Tiny amount of money with potentially a huge positive outcome, probably saving money overall.

^ This. End of argument.

[SueEllen]

The issue isn't black and white.

All you need to remember is foster carers have to follow specific rules and do what social workers say.

[VectraMan]

The girl on the telly had been with the family for two years - why do you think they're morally obliged to continue to look after her? It's not like adoption where you become the parent, it's a job - many foster carers have 20, 30 kids go through their doors in their careers - to expect them to support them all after 18 for free is daft.

Obviously I have too high an opinion of foster parents. The bloke on the telly never once said "I only do this as a job, I don't care about her at all".

So why doesn't the state pay for every 18 year old to have someone to look after them?

[GreyWolf]

I had the same thought about the way it was being presented as being "not allowed to stay" with the foster parents. The media seemed to be trying to conjure up an image of jackbooted council enforcers calling round to eighteenth birthday parties to cart off any violators of the new regulations.

The reality, of course, is that the foster parents may, or may not, boot them out of the house once the cheques stop. Nothing new there.