Paperwork before a cheeky week in Spain
At the time this post is live I’ll have returned from my most recent travel adventure to Amsterdam, but seen as I’m planning a trip away, I thought when better to discuss what it’s like for children in care to travel, most for the first time.
I wouldn’t describe traveling as a Cared for Child as totally different from a non-cared for child, if were discussing traveling abroad; the flight is the same, the beach is the same, the activities are the same, the experience is overall the same. But there are rules and restrictions for kids in foster care travelling, I wanted to talk about them because when I’ve explained them to my friends, they’ve usually been shocked, confused or interested. Each time a carer plans a holiday they must ask permission from their local authority to take the child, especially out of the country. Who would’ve thought you’d need to fill out paperwork for a cheeky week away in Spain? When my foster-mum explained it to me she basically said that the Authority had to approve the trip and if they didn’t it would flag up on my passport at the airport, this still makes me worry when they check my passport even though I’m a grown adult and can travel whenever and wherever I want.
According to the Governments Fostering Service: National Minimum Standards, ‘When a child is placed with you, you will usually be informed of any reason why they may not be able to go away and whether extra permissions will need to be sought from the local authority or birth parents for such trips’, which implies to me that the amount of restriction is different depending on the child. I know that my mum never had a say in my holidays, and from what I remember it was always a pain to get social services to give anyone the go ahead to take me abroad. My secondary school used to do a yearly trip to Thailand, they would take 8 students for two weeks to volunteer at a school there. The teacher in charge of the trip happened to be the Cared for Children’s officer at my school, as you can imagine he was my go-to teacher for any issues, and he understood the procedures needed to follow to take me on the trip. All I remember is a lot of back and forth between him and my local authority to get the correct permissions. Even I don’t see this as a huge issue, it’s a safety precaution put in place so parents don’t just take their kid and flee the country, but I do think it could be a barrier preventing young children in care from travelling because not all foster families will want to bother with the extra hurdle.
My first adult trip away was to Cyprus, I went for a week away with my boyfriend at the time when I was 18. Beautiful country. But on the way back I was stopped at passport control and asked who I was travelling with, I automatically assumed it had flagged like my foster mum told me it would. I think the man read my passport wrong and thought I was too young to travel alone, but every time I show my passport and the person waits a little too long before allowing me through, I panic.
Another thing about travelling with me is that I’m obsessed with plans, I like knowing what’s happening, when and where for everything. I must pack and unpack at least 5 times before any trip. So, when I went away with my boyfriend’s family last year and we had zero plans until the morning of the day, it made me unbearably anxious, I came to realise that most people don’t need a minute to minute to plan of each day. I tried working on my intense plan making this time round when we went for a weekend away in Amsterdam, I didn’t plan anything and we decided the night before, and it went upside down to say the least and I missed out on the main reason I went to Amsterdam- Ann Frank’s House. So maybe I should be unbearably intense and plan everything to the hour? I don’t know.
To conclude this POV of a Foster Kid, travelling makes me unbelievably stressed. But I’m grateful that I can travel, before entering care I had never been abroad and if I hadn’t travelled before 18, I might’ve never left the country like my parents. The thought of never seeing the world makes me sadder than the stress I feel in every airport, or the anxiety I feel whilst packing for a trip. One thing that I always reflect on when talking about my experience in care is how many doors it opened for me, things like holidays, shopping trips, educational support were doors that were locked and barricaded before I went into care. I think that’s why I overly spoil myself with holidays, shopping trips and new things ‘for Uni’ now, I like giving little me everything she thought she’d never have.
POV of a Foster Kid, Jess x
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