Children's Rights and the UNCRC in Welsh Foster Care

Most countries have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Far fewer have written it into their domestic law. Wales did — and for foster carers operating in Wales, this is not an abstract principle. It shapes the legal framework you work within every day.

How the UNCRC Became Welsh Law

In 2011, the Senedd passed the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure. This placed a duty on Welsh Ministers to have "due regard" to the UNCRC when exercising their functions. It was the first time any part of the UK had embedded the Convention into domestic legislation, and it preceded the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which then built upon it.

The practical effect is that Welsh policy and practice in children's services — including fostering — must be compatible with the UNCRC's 54 articles. When Welsh Government guidance for looked-after children is drafted, it is tested against the Convention. When training curricula for foster carers are developed, they incorporate the Convention's principles.

This is not just window dressing. It is why Wales's approach to children's services looks meaningfully different from England's, and why resources written for English foster carers often do not apply cleanly to Wales.

The Key UNCRC Rights in a Fostering Context

Several articles of the UNCRC are particularly relevant to the daily work of a Welsh foster carer:

Article 3 — Best interests of the child: Every decision made about a looked-after child must treat their best interests as a primary consideration. This is the baseline principle behind every Care and Support Plan, every review, and every placement decision.

Article 5 — Parental guidance and the child's evolving capacities: Welsh foster carers are expected to provide guidance that respects the child's evolving capacity to make decisions. This means adapting how you support a child's autonomy as they develop — a principle that runs through the SSWBA's "voice and control" framework.

Article 8 — Preservation of identity: Children have the right to preserve their identity, including nationality, name, and family relations. For foster carers, this means actively supporting a child's connection to their cultural, linguistic, and family background — even when aspects of that background are complicated.

Article 12 — The right to be heard: Children who are capable of forming views have the right to express those views in matters affecting them, with appropriate weight given to their age and maturity. In Welsh fostering, this manifests through the child's participation in their own LAC Review and Care and Support Plan. Foster carers are expected to facilitate this voice, not speak over it.

Article 19 — Protection from violence: Children have the right to protection from all forms of physical and mental violence. This underpins the 2022 abolition of the reasonable punishment defence in Wales — and it reflects the UNCRC's requirement that states take legislative measures to ensure this protection.

Article 25 — Periodic review for children placed by the state: Children in state care have the right to a periodic review of their treatment and all circumstances relevant to their placement. In Welsh practice, this is the LAC Review system.

Article 37 — Prohibition of torture and degrading treatment: No child should be subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. In a fostering context, this covers not only physical discipline but also emotional abuse, humiliation, and isolation as methods of control.

What This Means in Practice for Foster Carers

The UNCRC rights are not simply legal principles to be aware of — they are woven into the expectations placed on foster carers in Wales:

Your training: The "Skills to Foster" preparation training in Wales explicitly covers the UNCRC and the "voice and control" principles that derive from it. The All Wales Induction Framework (AWIF) includes a module on rights-based practice as a core element.

Your Care and Support Plan contributions: When you contribute to a child's Care and Support Plan or attend a LAC Review, you are expected to be an active advocate for the child's stated wishes and feelings — not just a reporter of their behaviour.

Contact arrangements: Supporting a child's right to maintain family relationships (Article 8) means actively facilitating contact with birth family members, even when this involves logistical effort or emotional complexity.

Decision-making in the household: Giving children age-appropriate choices and explanations — about food, activities, room arrangements, social events — is not just good parenting. Under the Welsh framework, it is an expression of their legal right to voice and control.

Wales vs England: The Practical Difference

England has not incorporated the UNCRC into domestic law in the same way. English children's services guidance references the UNCRC but is not legally bound to it in the way that Welsh policy is. This creates a genuine difference in emphasis.

Welsh foster carers are expected to operate with a higher degree of rights-literacy than their English counterparts — to understand why a child's voice matters, not just to follow a procedural requirement to consult them. This is part of what makes the Welsh fostering system distinctive, and part of why resources written for a UK-wide audience often miss important specifics.

The Wales Fostering Approval Guide covers the UNCRC duty, the SSWBA's voice and control framework, and how Wales's rights-based approach shapes the approval process and the day-to-day practice of fostering in Wales.

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