Aspirations: - TACT

Aspirations:The views of foster children and their carersAspirations:Ethnicity and faithIn terms of gender 87% of foster carers were femaleand 13% male. By comparison other studies haveproduced findings of 94%/6% female/male ratio(Sinclair et al, 23). 79% were married, a further 8%were living with a partner, 7% were single and 4 or7% were divorced. This is almost identical to Sellickand Connolly’s (2002) study which found that78% of foster carers were married. All foster carersreported that they live in a house, not a flat.Chart 8 Ethnic background of carers (n=54)40%35%3630%25%20%15%10%5%0%63 27White BritishBlack Caribbean Pakistani Other AsianOtherBackgroundCommentThe findings here are confirmed by other researchstudies e.g. Sinclair et al) pointing to variationby area regarding the ethnicity of foster carers.Nevertheless 67% of foster carers here describedthemselves as ‘white British’ whereas Sinclair et al’sstudy found 83% of foster carers were white British.67% of foster carers described themselves as whiteBritish, 11% as Black Caribbean, 9% as Pakistanior other Asian background and 13% as ‘other’(including Black British, White Asian British).Similarly, large foster carers survey conducted inWales found that 99% of foster carers were white(Collis and Butler, 27); Sellick and Connolly’s studyof Midland Foster Care Associates (1999) foundthat 95% of foster carers were white, and a Scottishstudy has shown that 99% of foster carers therewere white (quoted in Sellick and Connolly, 9).34