Why confidentiality is important in fostering

Your role as a foster parent is to provide commitment, compassion and love for your foster child/ren. As a role model in their lives, you allow them to experience life as they should. It goes without saying that as a foster parent, you have a duty of care, and part of this responsibility is understanding confidentiality, and why it’s important in fostering.

What is the purpose of confidentiality?

The purpose of confidentiality is to preserve an individual’s dignity. For foster children who have experienced adverse life experiences like abuse, neglect and trauma, confidentiality is key for a stable environment.

The reasons for confidentiality

1. It builds trust

If you fail to maintain confidentiality, it can trigger feelings of disrespect, insecurity and lack of trust. This is an issue because trust is synonymous with safety. A deep feeling of trust supports a child’s self-esteem and grows their confidence too – vital traits that are strongly linked to success in education, relationships and career.

A lack of trust can have a domino effect on your foster child. Here are some of the impacts a breakdown in trust can have:

• Development of an insecure attachment style like avoidant attachment
• Poor self-worth
• Inability or impaired ability to form relationships
• Social anxiety and withdrawal

2. Exposing confidential information can lead to trauma

For foster children in particular, they have often undergone traumatic experiences, leading them to foster care. Exposing confidential information compounds further trauma, impacting a foster child’s well-being as a whole. Cyberbullying and exploitation are just some of the experiences a foster child can undergo if their privacy or their personal information is leaked.

On a social level, mental health disorders like anxiety and depression can arise if they experience bullying, ridicule or embarrassment after their confidential matters have been exposed.

3. Maintains healthy relationships and provides stability

By demonstrating that you can keep the information confidential, it demonstrates reliability, building the foundation for a healthy and stable foster family relationship. Reliability is an important trait in parenting, making you more likeable, valuable, dependable and responsible too.

4. A breach of confidentiality will put you at risk of de-registration

Any breach of confidentiality will be treated as a serious matter, and the likely outcome is that you will risk losing your fostering licence. Other consequences include financial losses, legal repercussions and damage to your reputation.

How to remain confidential

• Refrain from discussing your foster child’s circumstances and history with any individuals outside your foster family
• Any verbal communication of confidential information should be done in private, where it cannot be overheard by unauthorised individuals
• Any information on the child’s circumstances or history should be kept in a secure and private place like a lockable cabinet
• Any new information that your foster child discloses, refer to your supervising social worker first, as there may be Child Protection implications
• Before your foster child shares information, ensure you openly communicate with them that the information that they share, may need to be shared with their Social Worker too
• Establish with your foster child the repercussions of sharing photos and other information about their circumstances, as well as other foster children’s, on social media or anywhere else
• Provide your foster children with information about the reasons for fostering and confidentiality principles, with guidance from your Supervising Social Worker

Can you make a difference?

Around the country, dozens of children enter the care system every day – children who can’t live at home through no fault of their own. We work with local authorities in every region of the UK to meet growing demand for all types of fostering. Can you become a foster carer and make a difference to a child’s future?

We offer a generous fostering allowance, with exclusive perks and benefits, free training (including specialisms) and exceptional support from your local team of fostering professionals.

If you’re unsure whether you’re eligible, try our Can I Foster? tool, which answers common questions about suitability to foster, based on a personalised Q and A style format. The outcome might surprise you! If you’re ready to chat with one of our fostering advisors, contact your local team.