Almost two-thirds of local authorities in Scotland have had to split up siblings who are in care over the past year owing to the shortage of foster families, new research from the Fostering Network has shown.
The survey, published during Foster Care Fortnight (14th to 27th May), found that:
- Almost two-thirds of fostering services have struggled to find homes for groups of brothers and sisters in the past year, and have had to split them up because they haven’t had foster carers able to take them all.
- Over half said that it has got harder to keep brothers and sisters together over the past five years.
- Four out of five fostering services are looking for more foster carers for sibling groups than they were last year.
Across the UK, a child comes into care and needs a foster family every 22 minutes. The Fostering Network estimates that an extra 8,750 foster families are needed in 2012 alone.