There has been a call for increased funding for training courses and education for foster parents in a bid to better equip them and their families in supporting young people in their care.
That’s according to Becky Kealy, Aontú’s LEA candidate for Kanturk in the upcoming local elections on the 7th June.
The state needs to invest in the people who are investing in vulnerable children. Foster Parents are the unsung heroes who do it because they want to care, to share and to love these very vulnerable and often damaged children who come to live with them. They receive scant support in the main and I am calling for a full programme of training and education in the area of trauma and trauma informed care so as to give foster parents the therapeutic and social support they need.
They also need more financial support. Foster Parents do not do it for the money but they absolutely need to be adequately recompensed for the priceless work they do.
We also need far more people to Foster .It is an enriching and hugely satisfying thing to do and the Government needs to launch a concerted recruitment drive to encourage more people to foster so that more children currently in the care of the State can move to a loving ,caring home environment instead of Residential Institutions.
About the author : Gary Pacheco
