97 children in foster care

Ninety-seven children are currently in foster care, and there are 120 approved foster carers, the social work agency Appogg said.

The agency said 22 families had been trained to foster next of kin and 80 were fostering, or were waiting to foster, unrelated children.

A total of 28 couples were approved as foster parents last year and nine couples are currently following a training course to become eligible.

Another training programme is due to start next May for families and married couples from all walks of life.

They will be familiarised with the whole fostering process, from the day the children are placed in the families to the day they leave, either to go back to their original family or to get on with their adult life.

The agency's fostering service aims to have children in residential homes placed in a safe, nurturing family.

However, in Malta it was not possible to foster every child in care due to legal restrictions, Appogg said. In the UK, for example, the court can decide that children who have been taken away from their parents and put into care can be adopted or fostered. In Malta, it is the parents who have to allow their children to be adopted, or fostered. For this reason, there are many children in care.

Appogg offers constant support to foster families. They are provided with the service of a social worker; child-in-care benefits irrespective of family earnings; medical tests; counselling and therapy, if necessary, for the fostered children; support groups; a supply of books, videos and other material related to fostering and continuous training.

Commenting on these statistics, Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the government was giving a lot of importance to fostering and, in the last few years, had set up the fostering team managed by Appogg.

The child-in-care benefit was introduced in last year's budget to support foster carers with their expenses.

Dr Gonzi said the service was part of a continuum of child services that the government was developing.

He added that Appogg is moving fast into developing a whole range of children's services to ensure that they are cared for and protected, especially those who have undergone some trauma, such as the separation of their parents.

Anyone interested in attending the training programme starting in May can contact Appogg's foster care team on 21255502.