Fostering children from ethnic minorities

Foster carers and all the professionals who work with children and their families from ethnic minorities need to be culturally sensitive to the social and economic stressors that black and ethnic minority families experience as a result of racism and discrimination.

Ethnic minority families face a range of issues that white members of society do not such as personal and institutional racism, the impact of immigration, nationality laws and separated families. These issues can be further compounded by other problems of parenting such as discipline and conflict between generations.

Often each family member will have specific roles which are not usually the norm within white, European families and therefore parenting within ethnic minority families needs to be considered and accepted in the cultural context of the family.

It is often the case that within some Asian families, the older children will be expected to take on responsibility for the younger brothers and sisters which if considered in a western cultural context, might be perceived as the older child being made to be a 'carer' and therefore overly responsible or even as sibling bullying.

The 'Excellence not Excuses' report showed that social services still face very real challenges in making sure that the needs of ethnic minority children and families are met. In particular, the report found that:

although anti-racist and equal opportunity policy and procedures existed, they were not consistently implemented or sustained;
workers often had difficulty in identifying child protection issues because they did not understand the needs of ethnic minority children and families;
processes for recruiting foster carers and care staff did not always recognise the changing needs of the population of children looked after;
reception and information services were not always welcoming or responsive enough to people for whom English was not their first language;
classification categories across councils were not consistent and information was not available or was not used for constructive service planning;

Local Authorities have a legal duty to consider a child's religion, racial origin, cultural background and first language when placing children 'in care'.
Local Authority social workers are required to find the best match possible between the potential foster child and foster carer.

Social workers will attempt to match foster children with foster carers who have had similar backgrounds although this is often not successful due to the lack of ethnic minority foster carers within the UK where there is a shortage relative to the number of children of different ethnic backgrounds being looked after by local authorities.

Foster carers are often asked to look after children with a different racial and cultural identities to them therefore they need to be sensitive to the children's background, this would have been a significant part of the assessment the foster carers would have undertaken as part of their approval. Foster carers however have access to continual specific training with regard to learning and updating their knowledge about different cultures.

For foster children from ethnic minorities to have their needs met appropriately, the information about their family history and cultural heritage is vital not only to the child's sense of personal identity and wellbeing, but also to their sense of cultural identification. Foster carers need to constantly consider;

the extent of quality and quantity of information the child has about their own roots and heritage, and how deficiencies in this information can be addressed;
the specific family structure in which the child lives, and the patterns of attachment which operate within this particular black family including any attachment figures who may not be blood relatives;
the impact of migration, separation and trauma on the child and wider family network.

Prior to and during the foster placement, foster carers need to discuss with the child's social worker how best to address the child's needs. There will probably be practical considerations such as for some children their religion may mean they cannot eat certain kinds of foods.

Although social workers do their best to make the best matches possible, ethnic minority children and their families are still struggling to receive support from social services which focuses on their needs. There remains a major concern with regard to the quality, quantity and suitability of services such as fostering, available to families from ethnic minorities throughout the UK.