In French-speaking Belgium alone, 130 babies under the age of 1 year do not find a place with a foster family, says the non-profit organization Famille d’accueil, which coordinates sixteen foster organizations in Brussels and Wallonia. The babies are placed in nurseries or moved from one emergency service to another while waiting for a suitable foster family. Sometimes healthy babies stay in a hospital for months. In some cases, the French-speaking foster organizations are forced to return the babies to the family from which they were taken.
Foster care in Flanders is also struggling with a shortage of foster families. Although the data is not kept in the same way as with their French-speaking colleagues, and there are no figures for the whole of Flanders yet. “The greatest shortage in Flanders is in the youngest age group,” says Jan Brocatus, spokesperson for Pleegzorg Vlaanderen.
Brocatus notes that prospective foster parents for infants and toddlers are increasingly withdrawing. “It is striking that they often use the same argument. Foster parents who applied for the youngest age group are worried that they will not find suitable childcare.”