From Mr G. Borg

I would like to share some thoughts with your readers regarding the Foster Care Bill that is being put through Parliament at present.

Nobody can deny that this Act is a step in the right direction to encourage foster care but I note, sadly, that Parliament, instead of adopting the holistic way to regulate and encourage the fostering of children, refrained from clearly committing itself to writing in the same Act the other important areas so much needed by foster carers apart from the regulations and checks and so on indicated in the Act.

According to the parliamentary reports in the newspapers, both sides of the House seem to agree on the importance of foster care in our society, apart from acknowledging that foster carers do have a tough mission to accomplish and that they really need to be offered more help. Members pointed out among other things, the loss of privacy of foster carers due to the monitoring and checks, which are important and really necessary to protect the children in foster care; the inadequate support both financial and medical, which is so much needed in foster care, and the increased danger that fostered children could suffer from mental health problems due to the fact that they have suffered traumas in their life.

Foster carers, who were trained and approved by Appogg, cannot understand why in Clause 34 of the Act, it states that they have to apply to be approved by the new Fostering Board. Which begs the question: “Is Appogg not going to be one of the accredited agencies and if it qualifies, why can’t the present approved foster carers be automatically included in the new register?” And how about the Act also providing foster carers with impartial free legal aid and representation especially in instances where foster carers are aggrieved by certain decisions taken. Apart from the responsibilities, isn’t this also a right of a foster carer? Or is the foster carer expected to pay for such a service?

The areas that need urgent improvement and/or support for foster carers are the following:

• Preferential rates or rebates in energy bills for each fostered child.

• Free medicines and free special medical/psychological/psychiatric services for any fostered child.

• Preferential income tax rates coupled with an adequate improvement to the present foster care allowance.

•Increased training and wide support to foster carers in various areas.

• Impartial free legal aid and representation.

I do not think the above requests are unreasonable or unsustainable. Members of the House actually commented on these subjects in the parliamentary debates. If the country is not producing social workers and psychologists fast enough, then one should consider the possibility of part-time or flexible hours for ex-social workers and other suitable persons together with the possible outsourcing for psychologists/therapists and so on from the private sector.

If everyone wishes foster care to increase in Malta, then every effort should be made to ensure that we do not have a situation where only people who are financially stable can actually foster children. Our mission should be to reduce as much as possible the number of children who are living in institutes and provide them with a secure family environment. Naturally, everybody agrees that checks and monitoring should be carried out to protect fostered children against any possible abuse but everybody should also ensure that the State’s duties in the provision of services and support in this area are actually and adequately provided.

If anyone still believes that with the present benefits and support, foster care will increase in Malta, then it is really a long winding road. A relative survey of how the State itself looks at its residential care or other similar services, I do not see a problem in giving the foster carers and their fostered children their due.

Finally, I would like to thank the Fostering Team at Appogg for their hard work and support in spite of their limited resources, and the National Foster Care Association of Malta for promoting the foster carers’ rights and responsibilities.

Godfrey Borg

ZABBAR