Labour spokesperson on social solidarity Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said that the bill on Foster Care was a positive one and that it will receive the full backing of the Labour Party. Speaking during Monday’s parliamentary session, Dr Coleiro Preca pointed out that the Church was the first to house vulnerable children – before foster care was introduced.
Mrs Coleiro Preca said that fostering is a noble service which is very important for society and children.
She pointed out that this bill will be introducing important provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Labour Party had called for the need of this bill in its policy documents, she said. However, she added, it would have liked it to be presented before Parliament earlier.
“A future Labour government would remain committed to further improving foster care legislation and services,” she said.
Dr Coleiro Preca said that the director of children’s homes, Fr McKeon, had himself stressed how, despite the efforts of institutions to provide the best environment for children, nothing could be better than a family environment, including the environment of a foster family.
The bill was safeguarding foster parents who are sometimes harassed by the natural parents, she said.
Foster parents could never be adequately compensated for their service, especially with the Lm12 a week per child they receive at the moment, she added. Therefore, the bill should acknowledge the principle of a private care benefit.
She pointed out that there are foster parents who had to find a part-time job to be able to afford the child they were fostering. Natural parents whose children were being fostered should also be made to give some form of compensation, such as maintenance.
Furthermore, she said, the state needs to remove other obstacles such as the Lm60 fee for a foster child’s passport.
She questioned why foster parents have to pay six times the normal fee.
In her introduction to the bill, Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said that foster families would have a clear statute of their duties and responsibilities as well as what their rights are.
The bill states that it is a crime for anyone to make money out of arranging fostering or for a non-accredited agency to make arrangements for fostering.
Furthermore, said Mrs Cristina, no one could use children in difficult circumstances for media purposes.
It would be a crime for anyone to pressure foster families in any way, including forcing or inducing a foster family to give up fostering of a child or take a child away from foster families or to pressure the Fostering Board.
Mrs Cristina said all approved foster carers will be given temporary approval by the new board but they will have to inform the board within three months since the bill will be approved to undergo a proper assessment.