Young care experienced people in Merthyr Tydfil welcome plan to phase profit out of children’s care

This Care Day (21 February), Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil is joining Wales’ fostering community in highlighting the benefits of local authority care as the Welsh Government’s landmark Health and Social Care Bill begins the process of removing profit from the children’s care system.

Wales is the first country in the UK to legislate to remove profit from both residential and foster care for children.

Foster Wales’ Staying local campaign, led by care experienced people and local authority foster carers, aims to show how the policy will support young people in care to stay connected to their local area, community, friends, and school.

Last year, 85 per cent of young people with local authority foster carers remained in their area. However, only 31 per cent of young people cared for by commercial fostering agencies stayed local, with 7 per cent being moved outside of Wales entirely.

Sarah, a Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil Foster Carer commented: “Keeping children local is important because it means a child is staying in a community they are familiar with, it allows them to remain in their school, it allows them to keep links that they have developed, it means they are closer to siblings and contact is easier to maintain, it also means less travelling for the child.”

A care experienced child from Merthyr Tydfil added: “I think it's important to keep children local because you are familiar with the area. If children are moved away, they might feel isolated and upset. Children get used to where they live and sometimes don't like change. It is important for me to stay local because I don't want to change schools or move from my friends. Another reason is that I know my way around the community. If you live far away, it might make it harder to contact your family. Some children have had a lot of trauma during their lifetime and moving far away might add to it. Children might want to run away or act out because they are unhappy with their place they’re living”.

In Wales, there are more than 7,000 children in the care system, but only 3,800 foster families. Foster Wales has set out with the bold aim of recruiting over 800 new foster families by 2026 to provide welcoming homes for local children and young people. 

We currently have 83 children and young people in foster care in Merthyr Tydfil; and we need more foster carers to ensure that all our children have the care and support they deserve.

Jo Llewellyn, Head of Children's Services commented: “Last year some of the children that we look after as a local authority in Merthyr Tydfil wrote a poem which is now on a mural at Merthyr Town FC.

"This poem contains the lines ‘to share responsibility and a place to rest, in their hometown is where it is best’.

"It reinforces how important it is for our children to get to stay in their local area to maintain their sense of identity and stay close to their friends and support networks.

"Last year in Wales, 85 per cent of young people with local authority foster carers remained in their area. However, only 31 per cent of young people cared for by commercial fostering agencies stayed local.

"As the statistics show, children in the care of their local authority are more likely to stay local, and I am hopeful that the new policies being brought in by The Welsh Government’s programme to remove profit from the care of children looked after will increase the number of children that remain in Merthyr Tydfil.

"In the 2021 co-operation agreement between Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru, there was a commitment to prioritise services that are locally based, locally designed, and locally accountable and I fully support this as we move over the next few years to remove private profit from the care of Children looked after in Wales”.

For more information about fostering, or to make an enquiry, visit: https://fosterwales.gov.wales/