| answer text |
<p>In England, the purpose of foster care is to provide children with the chance of
a family life when they cannot be cared for by their birth parents.</p><p>Foster care
is a devolved matter and the agreement that foster carers in England have with fostering
service providers, including local authorities, sets out how they carry out their
role. This is, however, not a contract of employment or a contract to perform work,
which would be a necessary requirement for someone to be classed as either an employee
or a worker.</p><p>The Children’s Act 1989 (Vol. 4: Fostering Services) and subsequent
statutory guidance sets out strong safeguards to protect foster parents from unfair
treatment, including the requirement for fostering services to have a complaints procedure,
whistle blowing policy, and for foster parents to have the right to review by the
Independent Review Mechanism. Fostering Better Outcomes (2018) sets out the government’s
ambitions and commitments to improve the wider support available for foster parents
in England. There are no plans to reclassify the employment status of foster carers
to limb (b) workers.</p>
|
|
