Exploring abuse or neglect in foster care
6.1 The nature of the abuse or neglect
Some previous studies have analysed abuse or neglect in foster care in terms of the proportions of children who experience physical, emotional and sexual abuse or neglect; only a few have included descriptions of the nature of abuse or neglect in this setting (Biehal et al., 2009, Morris and Wheatley, 1994, Benedict et al., 1994, Gardner, 1998)). We introduce this chapter with a few brief case examples to illustrate the nature and severity of the different types of abuse or neglect experienced by fostered children. Further illustrations will be given in the remaining sections of the chapter.
44 In some instances there may be a slight discrepancy in the numbers given between this chapter and the previous one. This is because this chapter discusses individual cases of abuse or neglect (n=87), some of which involved more than one child, whereas (in large part) the previous chapter reported the total number of children involved in these cases (n=118).
The most common form of abuse or neglect in our survey was physical abuse, which was experienced by over one-third of children, as we saw in Chapter 5. Some instances were relatively minor, apparently isolated incidents. For example, in one case a child alone in a car with a foster carer was kicking and tilting the carer’s seat from behind, mocking her verbal attempts to stop him; the carer eventually reached back and hit the child. This was described by the social worker as “a spur of the moment (but inappropriate) response to managing a difficult and dangerous situation”. In another, a foster carer had smacked a young child’s hand when she reached for a pan on the stove. Both foster carers were given additional training in managing behaviour and the children remained in the placements. These and other similar incidents were typically the result of carers under stress smacking misbehaving children without using undue force or causing injury. More serious cases of physical abuse included one in which a child had sustained several unexplained fractures and a lack of developmental progress since the placement began; in another, a foster carer had injured a child while showering him after he had soiled himself. This child had long-standing toileting difficulties, which the foster carer found difficult to manage.
Emotional abuse was reported for just under one-third of the children and had often persisted for long periods of time. In the cases for which details were provided the emotional abuse was invariably serious. Sometimes the true extent of the emotional abuse was not discovered until after children had left the placement, but in a few cases social workers were alerted to the abuse while the children were still in placement. In one case, for example, foster carers who had fostered a child for three years found her more difficult to care for once she reached puberty and refused to keep her any longer. On moving to her new placement she described how her belongings were thrown into the fire if she refused to pick them up, how she had received harsh punishments for minor misdemeanours and how she had been refused a birthday party on the grounds that she was too old. Her brother had remained with the carers, but when she saw them during contact visits with him they refused to speak to her or even look at her. Emotional abuse occurred in all types of placements, but a number of examples concerned children in long-term placements and kinship placements. These are discussed below.
There were also 12 cases in which emotional abuse was reported in combination with physical abuse or neglect. One child who made a planned move to long-term foster carers disclosed, within a few days, that her previous foster carer shouted at her in her face, had forced her to eat the evening meal she had refused for breakfast the next day, gave preferential treatment to another foster child and had smacked another young foster child. In another case the foster carer swore at the child, threw water over him, grabbed his arm making ‘scram
marks’ on it, made him sit on the floor and told the other children not to look at him. After being moved from the foster home, the child also disclosed that the male carer drank heavily every night and that he and the other children stayed out of his way to avoid being shouted at. As we saw in the last chapter, neglect was reported for 17 per cent of the children in our fostering survey.46 This pattern differs from that for
children in the wider community, for whom neglect is by far the most common form of recorded abuse or neglect, followed by emotional and then physical abuse (Department for Education, 2012b). Neglect was the sole form of reported abuse or neglect for only two children in our sample. For example, one child’s school had alerted social workers to the fact that the child’s hygiene was poor, that she came to school in ill-fitting and dirty clothes and had an untreated skin condition. In most other cases neglect was reported in conjunction with emotional and/or physical abuse. For example, one social worker reported that a foster carer appeared to have resorted to inappropriate physical chastisement (with a slipper) and neglected (the children) physically and emotionally.
Sexual abuse was the least common form of abuse reported, reflecting the pattern for children in the wider community. Most of the 10 cases of sexual abuse (which involved 12 children) were extremely serious, but seven of themonly came to light a considerable time after the children left the placements. These cases are discussed below in section 6.3, about when the abuse or neglect came to light.In one of the other three cases a girl disclosed to her respite carers that her regular foster carer had touched her inappropriately and attempted to have sex with her while, in another case, the foster carer admitted that she had fallen in love with a boy she had been fostering for several months. In the third case a social worker enquired about an argument she observed between a fostered child, Ruth, and a member of the foster family during a routine visit to the foster home. By way of explanation another fostered child, Sheila, mentioned that Ruth was in a relationship with the male foster carer. Both Ruth and Sheila were immediately removed and it subsequently emerged that both had been sexually abused by this carer.
46 Types of abuse or neglect were reported for 108 of the 118 children in the fostering survey.