SDLP Foyleside Councillor Mary Durkan
Said Cllr Durkan: “The pandemic has highlighted challenges for children and widening gaps in equality generally, but children in care include some of the most vulnerable in our communities.
“Indications of heightened concerns around child protection and child poverty suggest that more children will find themselves in the care system.
“It is reassuring to learn that the joint strategy, entitled “A Life Deserved: “Caring” for Children and Young People in NI” has been shaped by direct engagement with children and young people in care.
“It is crucial that those young people continue to have a central role in shaping policy.”
Miss Durkan, a children’s law practitioner, also welcomed the £754,800 secured for support for foster carers and kinship foster carers.
“The pandemic has brought unique challenges for children in care, their birth parents and foster families.
“Disruption to school routines, contact arrangements with birth families and support services clearly has an impact on children in care.
“Relationships have been strained. The financial support will go some way to help with added costs facing foster carers and kinship carers during the pandemic.”
Miss Durkan added: “Foster carers are playing such an important role in providing stable homes for some of the most vulnerable children in our communities.
“That stability is particularly crucial for these children given all the uncertainty surrounding Covid 19.
“This funding, coupled with the joint strategy, points not only to recognition of the complex needs of children in care, but also an acknowledgement of the significant contribution of foster carers and kinship carers in these young lives.”
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