Safe, Secure and Thriving Campaign
Why did we choose this campaign?
We launched our Safe, Secure and Thriving Campaign to highlight the need for more robust post-placement support for children placed with carers overseas. Currently, we do not know the total number of children being placed overseas, which countries they are being placed in, what orders are being used or how many are successful or eventually breakdown.
There is a huge lack of large scale data about the outcomes of children placed overseas. Without it, we don’t know if support for overseas kinship placements is on par with what a child would experience in the UK. Location, borders or nationality should never be a barrier to adequate post-placement support.
Without proper governmental monitoring and guidance in place, children who are already vulnerable can be put at further risk of neglect, abuse, exploitation, or forced to take dangerous journeys back to the UK. Even in these cases, a local authority can refuse responsibility for a child because of the cross-border nature of their placement.
The Department for Education's focus on kinship care within their Stable Homes, Built on Love Implementation Strategy is a positive step to ensuring that all children can maintain meaningful relationships with their families and communities. A new kinship strategy should consider family relationships extending across borders while ensuring that necessary safeguards and support for children and kinship carers are in place, which supports a thriving and secure environment.
Want to learn more? We answered some of your FAQs
Learn moreWhat change do we seek?
We want to ensure that all children placed with families across borders can be Safe, Secure and Thriving in their new home. We believe all statutory agents should be supported in making reasonable efforts to ensure the safe transition of a child from one home to another. This support exists for a child transitioning within this country, and it exists for a child adopted from England to another country. So it must also exist for vulnerable children leaving a home in the UK to join family overseas.
We want to see the following changes:
- The Department for Education to publish data on the number of children placed overseas from England and to include outcomes for overseas kinship placements.
- To ensure support for overseas kinship placements is on par with what a child would experience in England.
- That a high-quality contingency plan, including provision in the case of a placement breakdown, is written for all children before they are placed overseas.
Lord Laming’s support for the campaign
Children and Families Across Borders is delighted that Lord Laming is supporting our Safe, Secure and Thriving Campaign. We were lucky enough to record a short video with him explaining the issues and CFAB’s recommendations.
What can you do to support us?
- Tweet or post about our campaign using the hashtag #SafeSecureThriving @CFABUK
- Tweet your local MP, councillor and anyone you think can help spread the word with a link to this webpage.
Write to your local MP using the letter template available to download below, personalising it with you own information and send it though WriteToThem. Please share any response you receive with us.
