In 2023, Cindy’s son was placed in a foster home due to a complicated psychological diagnosis within his own family.
- In 2023, Cindy's son was placed in a foster home.
- Cindy felt a bad feeling about the situation.
- The IGJ released a critical report on youth care.
- Children’s signals are often not believed by authorities.
- Audio recordings led to her son's relocation.
- Cindy hopes her son can return home with help.
Cindy quickly felt uneasy about the situation. She stated, “The contact was barely possible and we did not hear where he had been taken.” Occasionally, they could speak with him, and he reported being yelled at and that his foster parents said hurtful things about his biological parents.
He mentioned that they shouted there was only a 1 percent chance he would ever return home and labeled his parents as bad people. Cindy’s son expressed that he was very unhappy and often scared, prompting her to contact the foster care organization, which did not intervene.
The Health and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) and the Justice and Security Inspectorate (IJV) released a critical report on youth care, highlighting poor oversight of foster care organizations. The report concluded there is insufficient visibility into the safety of foster homes and inadequate direct contact with foster children.
According to youth care lawyer Mieke Krol, “Children who signal that things are not going well are often not believed by agencies and helpers.” She noted that it is common for these signals to later prove accurate, indicating that children or their parents were indeed telling the truth.
Cindy grew increasingly concerned that the uncontrolled yelling from the foster mother could lead to worse outcomes. She advised her son to secretly make a recording. “I believed him, but for some reason, he was not believed by anyone.”
The recordings of the foster mother’s aggressive language ultimately led to a transfer to another placement. Cindy expressed mixed feelings about her son needing to go to such lengths to prove his case.
Contact with her son improved at the new location. She hopes he can return home with professional help. “We now have multiple contacts every day,” Cindy said. “His trust has taken a significant hit due to what happened. We need to get used to each other again, but I am glad he knows we have always believed him.”
Originally reported by eenvandaag.avrotros.nl as “Onvoldoende zicht op veiligheid kinderen in pleegzorg, moeder Cindy moest zelf in actie komen: ‘Liet mijn zoon stiekem geluidsopnames maken'” on 2025-09-25 09:04:00.
