Foster parents of children with disabilities struggle to get access to health records, medical appointments

“For the longest time, we’ve been trying to get it set up. But the process and workflows are always tied back to the natural parents. So if the natural parents are not proactive and engaging, it will take a long time to get it set up,” Mark said.

He added that he has long-term plans to pay for the boy’s health and education, and the funds in the CDA account would be useful. But when Mark set up the account earlier this year, a new issue arose.

He said the account details were sent to the biological parents, but he has been unable to retrieve them as they were not “proactively involved” in working with the foster care worker to pass the information on to him.

“So we have a weird situation where the parents can affect bad long-term outcomes for the child … The biological parent is not fit to take care of the child physically, but yet they are supposed to be fit to take care of the child for other matters.”

MSF said it supports foster parents by providing a monthly fostering allowance ranging from S$1,100 to S$1,800, depending on the child’s age and needs, to help defray childcare and other out-of-pocket expenses.

“The fostering allowance has taken into account all related expenses to support the child. In addition, foster children are eligible for childcare, student care and medical subsidies,” the ministry added.

Claire told CNA that she previously had challenges accessing her foster children’s Parents Gateway platform, a government mobile app that connects parents with schools, facilitating digital consent forms, announcements, and school activities.

“I managed to get on it, but the school needs to facilitate otherwise foster parents can’t get on it,” she said.

“A lot of information comes through Parents Gateway, so you need to be on there,” she added.

Claire added that in her situation, the foster child’s biological parents remain the main contact point for school matters. “Unless they are removed as the main contact, correspondence goes to them automatically.”

MSF told CNA that it is open to considering arrangements between foster and biological parents where appropriate, particularly to facilitate reunification of the child with the biological parents, and where it is in the child’s best interests.

“MSF will require more time to study this further as every child’s circumstance and caregiving arrangement is unique.”