英格兰的寄养家庭数量自2021年以来下降了10%，目前超过三分之一的寄养照护者年龄在60岁或以上。
The number of fostering households in England has dropped 10% since 2021, with over one in three foster carers now aged 60 or over.
照片：Andor Bujdoso/Alamy 新招募活动瞄准30多岁和40多岁成年人，旨在创造1万个新寄养名额现年67岁的维内塔·巴斯特菲尔德在西伦敦的家中从事寄养工作长达二十年，收养过100多名儿童，直到新冠疫情期间她和丈夫才交出接力棒、停止寄养。
Photograph: Andor Bujdoso/Alamy New recruitment campaign to target adults in their 30s and 40s in bid to create 10,000 new foster care places Viennetta Basterfield, 67, spent two decades fostering more than 100 children in her west London home before she and her husband handed in the reins during Covid.
她九岁时母亲去世，由另一位收留她的女性抚养长大。她心里毫无犹豫，想将一生奉献给传递这份恩赐。
Her own mother had died when she was nine and she was brought up by another woman who took her in. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to dedicate her life to passing that gift on to others.
“我不能说我不害怕。每一次安置我都害怕，因为你会想：我们会没事吗？他们会接受我们吗？”她说。“但这是我做过最有回报的事。周日晚餐、圣诞节、生日，我们家里依然热闹非凡。”
“I can’t say I wasn’t frightened. Every single placement I was frightened because you think, are we going to be OK? Are they going to accept us?” she said. “But it was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. We still have a full house for Sunday dinners, for christmas, for birthdays.
“你能给孩子最大的礼物，就是让他们知道自己很重要。”但她担心寄养的未来——她说流程周围的繁文缛节让人望而却步，年轻一代对此有更多顾虑，尤其是要同时兼顾照顾自己的孩子。
“The greatest gift you can give a child is to show them that they matter.”But she worries about the future of fostering – she said the bureaucracy around the process was putting people off, and younger generations had more reservations about doing it, especially juggling it with caring for their own children.
周三，政府将启动全国首个国家级寄养照护者招募活动，缘于寄养家庭数量下降，而需要寄养的儿童数量却在增加。
On Wednesday, the government is launching the country’s first national foster carer recruitment campaign, due to declining numbers at a time when there is a growing number of children in care.
寄养家庭数量自2021年以来下降了10%，且寄养照护者群体正在老龄化，目前超过三分之一的寄养照护者年龄在60岁或以上。
The number of fostering households has dropped 10% since 2021, and the foster care population is ageing, with over one in three foster carers now aged 60 or over.
此次呼吁将以30多岁和40多岁的成年人为目标，敦促他们“敞开心扉和家门，接纳社会上最脆弱的儿童”，目标是在本届议会结束前创造1万个新寄养名额。
The appeal will target adults in their 30s and 40s, urging them “to open their hearts and homes to some of the most vulnerable children in society”, with the aim of creating 10,000 new foster care places by the end of this parliament.
它将与新型寄养模式的试点同步进行，例如短期“临时寄养”或周末寄养，政府希望这能让更广泛的人群参与进来。
It will run alongside trials of new foster care models, such as short-term “respite fostering” or fostering at weekends, which the government hopes will make it accessible to a wider range of people.
儿童事务部长乔什·麦卡利斯特表示，他希望公众对这项运动的反应，能像许多人对“乌克兰之家”计划的反应那样——当时有数百人向难民敞开了家门。
The children’s minister, Josh MacAlister, said he wanted the public to respond to the campaign in the same way many did to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, when hundreds opened their homes to refugees.
他说：“当时出现了一个巨大的全国性时刻，我们意识到正在发生某件事，人们开始自问：我们能帮忙吗？我们需要这样的时刻，来促使人们在家中展开讨论。”
“There was this massive national moment where we understood that something was happening and people asked themselves, could we help? We need that kind of moment, to prompt people to have conversations in their homes,” he said.
他还说：“许多家庭可能无法做到这一点，但我们正试图通过让寄养成为跨代或兼职的形式，例如，向更广泛的人群敞开大门。”他敦促家庭不要等待所谓的“完美时机”。“你已经具备了很多所需条件。只需迈出第一步，启动流程，然后看看会走向何方，”他说。
“Lots of families won’t be able to do it, but we’re trying to open up fostering to a wider group of people, by making it intergenerational or part-time, for instance.”He urged families not to wait for the “perfect moment”. “You’ve already got a lot of what it takes. Just step forward and start the process and see where you go,” he said.
“除非我们迅速、显著地扩大寄养体系，否则我们最终会看到：每天早上醒来时，有许多孩子仍在机构照护中，而他们本来可以住在家庭里；还有许多孩子被送去住在离他们成长地点很远的地方。”周二，在唐宁街举行的活动上，在宣传活动正式启动之前，首相夫人玛丽-弗朗斯·范赫尔首次透露，她曾有意愿收养寄养儿童。
“Unless we rapidly, dramatically expand the foster care system, we will end up with children waking up every single day in residential care who could be in a family home, and children who are sent to live miles away from where they’ve grown up.”Speaking at an event ahead of the campagin at Downing Street on Tuesday, Marie-France van Heel, the prime minister’s wife, revealed for the first time that she had wanted to foster children.
她表示，由于丈夫的工作以及她觉得自己必须“转变成另一种类型的人才能承担起寄养责任”，她曾放弃了这个想法。“这项运动真的在试图消除一些这样的误解和错误认识，”她说。
She was put off the idea because of her husband’s job and feeling she had to “transform myself into a different type of person to be able to give foster care”. “This campaign is really trying to dispel some of those myths and misconceptions,” she said.
在英格兰，寄养是被照护儿童的主要照护形式。在81,770名被照护儿童中，大约有56,400名儿童在任何时候都处于寄养状态。
Fostering is the primary form of care for looked-after children in England. Out of 81,770 looked-after children, there are about 56,400 children in foster care at any one time.
科拉姆儿童研究所的最新研究发现，超过50万成年人有意愿成为寄养父母，估计有340万人对寄养感兴趣。
New research by the Coram Institute for Children found over half a million adults want to foster and an estimated 3.4 million are interested.
科尔姆首席执行官卡罗尔·霍姆登女爵士表示，存在一批“愿意成为寄养照护者的人群”，慈善机构欢迎政府招募更多寄养照护者的雄心勃勃的计划。
Dame Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, said there was a “substantial pool of people who are open to becoming foster carers” and the charity welcomed the government’s ambitious plans to recruit more.
他们的研究发现，某些群体具有更高的寄养倾向，可以成为重点目标，包括女性、大家庭以及来自少数民族背景的人群，尤其是黑人家庭。
Their research has identified certain groups with a higher fostering propensity who could be targeted, including women, larger households and those from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, particularly black households.
但霍姆登表示，除了招募新寄养照护者之外，还需要关注留住现有寄养照护者。
But there also needs to be a focus on retaining current foster carers as well as recruiting new ones, Homden said.
研究表明，有多种因素正在推动寄养照护者离开该行业，包括感到被社会工作者低估或忽视，以及经济压力——寄养网络发现，只有33%的照护者报告称他们的津贴能够完全覆盖抚养一个孩子的成本。“我们需要看到对关键领域和群体的精准定位，提供清晰的信息和实际支持，以提升寄养照护者的招募和留存率，”霍姆登说。
Research has shown a number of factors are pushing foster carers to leave the sector, including feeling undervalued or ignored by social workers, and financial strain – the Fostering Network found only 33% of carers report their allowances fully cover the cost of raising a child“We need to see a focus on targeting key areas and groups, clear information and practical support to boost both recruitment and retention of foster carers,” said Homden.
教育部的民意调查发现，三分之二（66%）的人认为，如果实际障碍被消除，他们可以成为优秀的寄养照护者。
Polling by the Department for Education found that two-thirds (66%) of people believe they could be a good foster carer if practical barriers were removed.