Ms Kate Duggan:

One of the opportunities members will see in the plan we are developing relates to shared care. Often, foster carers may need more access to respite to be able to sustain a placement. It is about looking at what foster carers have told us would help them with the placements they have at the moment. Foster carers who foster teenagers or older children have identified the need for some additional respite. The shared-care approach is something that, as well as the therapeutic supports, we see as supporting that.