An appeal has been issued for eligible people to come forward to be foster parents.

“There is need to increase the foster pool,” Tinée Furbert, the Minister of Social Development, Youth and Seniors, told the House on Wednesday.

Opposition MP Susan Jackson questioned whether the ministry was engaging eligible foster parents. She asked whether children were “dropping out” of the foster-care pool or whether there was less demand for foster parents.

In the Budget, $2,384,000 has been set aside for foster care under the Department of Child and Family Services. The department has set a target this year to increase the number of foster parents on its roster to 75.

In 2023, a total of 58 children were in foster care. By the end of the year, that number dropped, as seven children departed from the programme and were placed in the full custodial care of relatives. Three were reunited with their parents. The total at the moment is 52.

“Unfortunately, we have been experiencing a reduction in foster families over recent years,” Ms Furbert told the House.

In 2023, the foster care co-ordinator interviewed 13 people interested in becoming foster parents. Six were approved.

Despite the constant appeal for foster parents, the department continues to find it difficult to recruit them.

Ms Furbert said multiple factors have been contributing to the reduction. Children were “ageing out” of the programme, “thus coming off the active list”. In addition, she said, fewer people were responding to recruitment campaigns.

The complex commitment that comes with being a foster parent and the “stresses which people are facing in our community” may be factors impacting new parents coming on board, she said.

Ms Furbert said that in 2023, the department carried out a recruitment drive to enlist foster parents. “Actually, we had more recruitment drives, more than ever, with limited success,” she said about last year’s campaign.

The department partnered with the Department of Communication to boost its awareness campaign through advertising, using all forms of media.

In addition, advertisements were placed on buses in the public transport system.

In the House on Wednesday, the Minister of the Cabinet Office, Vance Campbell, joined the call for people to become foster parents.

Mr Campbell, who presented part of Ms Furbert’s budget brief after she had to leave for an engagement, said he had been a foster parent for 17 years. “It’s rewarding,” he said.