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Anti-discriminatory Practice
All children receiving services from the fostering and adoption team are individuals and have individual needs. The foster care provided to a child should recognise and address his or her needs in terms of gender, religion, ethnic origin, language, culture, ability and sexuality.
Standards
- Where a child is placed in a foster placement that does not match their cultural and ethnic needs the social worker will identify and find ways to meet the unmet need and will include the foster carer in this process.
- Action required will be recorded in a pre-placement meeting or the first placement meeting.
- Foster carers should help children and young people to value their identity and promote positive self-esteem. Foster carers should work co-operatively with the child's social worker, and where appropriate the birth parents, to enhance the child's confidence and feeling of self worth.
- To ensure that the care practices are appropriate certain areas should be explored with the child's social worker, parents and previous carers (where appropriate) before the child enters the home. These should always include, as a minimum, health and education needs, religious observance and dietary requirements.
- It is important that carers do not make assumptions about the religious observance, cultural norms and dietary needs of any children without discussion with the child's social worker, parents, any previous carers and the child themselves.
- Foster carers should support and encourage any child in their care to help him or her to deal with all forms of discrimination that they may encounter. Children and young people should be supported and encouraged to develop skills to help them challenge all issues of discrimination.
- It is important to remember that all the children in care processes ensure that the care needs of children are appropriately met. These processes will help to ensure that the care needs of ethnic minority children in particular are met.
- Children with disabilities should not be discriminated against in any way because of the lack of facilities available in placements. All opportunities to address any gaps in the foster placement should be provided.
- All children should have an environment that encourages their skills, hobbies and interests.
- Each child should be able to exercise their right to participate in decisions related to the care that they receive as appropriate to their age and competence. This may mean ensuring that signers or interpreters are made available as appropriate.
- Actions or comments by anyone which could be construed as discriminatory will be challenged.
- Foster carers will be offered training on anti-oppressive practice and valuing diversity.