Chapter 15 — Foster care

Current circumstances

Eleven (11) of the 16 witnesses who were discharged from foster placements when they were 15 years old reported that few arrangements or provisions were made for their subsequent support. They described being treated, in some instances, as ‘slaves’, without any regard for their developmental and emotional needs. There were eight accounts of witnesses being placed with elderly, childless foster parents for the purpose, they believed, of providing assistance and company for the foster parents. Accounts were heard of relatives ejecting witnesses from the foster homes where they had been placed as young children, when a foster parent died, without regard for their future welfare. In those instances where the witnesses were over 16 years old they were no longer the responsibility of the social services. They had remained living in their foster homes because they had nowhere else to go or it was mutually convenient for them to remain with their elderly foster parents.