TACT and other sector leaders are continuing to urge the government for a dedicated lockdown allowance for all foster cares. The repeated plea comes during Foster Care Fortnight and three weeks after Vicky Ford – Minister for Children and Families, met with foster carers to hear about the support they need during the Covid-19 crisis, and assured them that help will be provided. Unfortunately, that help has not yet materialised. Vicky Ford’s meeting and pledge of support were in response to an open letter to governments around the UK, from TACT and fellow members of the Fairer Fostering Partnership (FFP), alongside The Fostering Network, the National Association of Fostering Providers and Coram BAAF, calling for financial support for foster carers who either cannot look after children at present because of the threat posed by Covid-19 or are incurring extra costs due to caring for children during lockdown. Andy Elvin, Chief Executive of TACT, said: ‘’ It is essential that foster carers are recognised as having a key role in this crisis. We are expecting a lot of our foster families at this unprecedented time, and local and central government need to step up and urgently support these frontline carers financially and practically” A second letter has now been sent to the Minister on the issue: Dear Minister, Financial support for foster carers Thank you for meeting with us to discuss foster care allowances on 22 April and for listening to foster carers directly about the support they need to care for children throughout and beyond this crisis. We were pleased to hear your reassurances that foster carers should be prioritised within the additional funding that has been given to local authorities. However, three weeks on, we remain extremely concerned that the money is not reaching foster carers. We are continuing to hear from foster carers facing financial hardship because of lost fostering income or increased expenses. It is extremely concerning that foster carers are shouldering this burden in the course of looking after some of the country’s most vulnerable children. We have spoken with ADCS and the LGA who are both adamant that while they welcome the additional money, it is not sufficient. The LGA estimates that “the £3.2 billion will only cover around a quarter to one third of the cost pressures facing councils as a result of COVID-19.” The ADCS told us, “this is un-ringfenced funding and must support the breadth of local government services, not just children’s services. Difficult decisions will have to be made in terms of prioritising how this funding is used and that is a matter for individual local authorities to consider.” Like us, the LGA are concerned that guidance continues to state that children in care are encouraged to attend educational provision, which is at odds with what is happening in practice. We therefore ask you to reconsider our initial proposals to:
Every year thousands of foster carers must be recruited to ensure a suitable placement can be found for every child that needs one, and it is equally important that we value and retain the existing workforce. It is now more important than ever that we support foster families and ensure that children in foster care are protected as far as possible from the devastating impact of coronavirus. Yours sincerely Kevin Williams, Chief Executive, The Fostering Network Andy Elvin, Chief Executive, TACT Harvey Gallagher, Chief Executive, NAFP John Simmonds, Director of Policy, Research and Development CoramBAAF Source: www.tactcare.org.uk Tanya was raised by a family member, who later passed away. This inspired her to become a care worker with vulnerable adults. Once her children had grown up, Tanya decided to become a foster carer. Since 2018, she and her husband Tony have been foster carers for Action for Children and have already welcomed four children into their home. Here, Tanya explains how fostering has changed her life. “When I first heard the word ‘fostering’, I instantly thought of care, compassion and empathy. I started considering becoming a foster carer two and a half years ago. My children had grown up and I felt proud that I had raised them to be kind and caring adults. Being a parent made me wonder what would have happened to my children if they hadn’t had the guidance from their parents and how much different their lives could have been without a support system. “I had a difficult upbringing, but thankfully I had a loving family member who raised me as her own for 13 years until, sadly, she passed. In those 13 years she taught me so much kindness, care, compassion, honesty and gave me all the tools I needed to grow up to be the adult I am today and for that I will be forever grateful. “This inspired me to go into care work myself. Before I became a foster carer, I worked with elderly vulnerable adults, a job I enjoyed immensely and which taught me skills I could later use in my fostering role. “To me, fostering is offering a young person a safe family life. It can be challenging at times, but also very rewarding. It’s a bit like being on a rollercoaster; we go through many twists and turns, ups and downs. We show and express lots of emotions during the ride; fear, laughter, relief, and after all emotions settle, we want to do it all over again. “Fostering can be difficult, but I can honestly say it is the most rewarding job I have ever had. A foster child does not want a lot - they just want to feel safe, included, listened to, loved and cared for, just like anyone else. Offering them all these things will make a lasting difference. Every now and then you will experience certain difficulties along the way, such as sleepless nights or mixed emotions about everything, but I think the positives outweigh it all. “Seeing the young person grow and develop the life skills you have taught them gives you a sense of achievement like no other. That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you bond with them and share cuddles and affection is truly amazing and makes it all worthwhile. And in the end, you will get to cherish the memories of all the special moments you shared together. “I have looked after young people of different age groups, some for longer periods than others, but I do believe each one of them has taken something positive away with them. I once had a young person in placement staying only for a short period of two weeks and we made sure that we made them feel included as soon as they came through the door and treated them with utmost respect and dignity. When this young person rang their social worker to let them know how they were getting on, they said that we had treated them as family from the beginning. We were overwhelmed by these lovely comments, especially because it showed us that even in a short space of time you can make a real difference to someone’s life. Each child who has come through my door is treated with the same love and care, no matter how long the stay. “Fostering has changed my life for the better and I am so thankful that I took the leap of faith into the unknown. There is no better feeling than watching a young person thrive and flourish knowing that you provided them with the stepping stones to help them along the way. You don’t need any special qualifications to foster, all you need is space in your life and the willingness to care for someone who really needs it. If you can help a young person take a small step every day, eventually they will be able to walk miles on their own. I am happy to be helping them on their way with those small steps.” Are you passionate about making a difference for children, and have energy and space in your life? We’d love you to join our team and become a foster carer with us. Source: www.actionforchildren.org.uk Circa: £17,700 Department/Division: England North Location: Middlesbrough Contract Type: Permanent Part Time (15 hours per week, Mon & Tue 9-5pm) Closing Date: 28 May 2020 How does Action for Children work?
Action for Children does what's right, does what's needed and does what works for children in the UK. Every year, our team changes the lives of over 300,000 children, young people and families. Our Fostering North service provides a variety of placements including therapeutic fostering placements for young people. We recruit foster carers to provide safe, stable and successful foster placements for the most vulnerable children from local authorities throughout the Fostering North (Middlesbrough) area. The role As a Referrals Officer you will build strong relationships with Local Authority Commissioners and social work teams by being dependable, responsive and supportive. You will work in partnership to advocate for best practice when making placements and represent Action for Children's values in your delivery. You will support our social workers and carers by providing clear and concise information and support the delivery of safe processes to ensure placements are made in line with contractual specifications. How will you make a difference?
What will you need?
How we reward you We have a first-rate employee benefit package including but not restricted to:
This is a current and live role and we shall be progressing as normal with our recruitment for this position. To comply with social distancing, we intend to interview remotely for the time being. Details will be discussed with applicants who progress to interview stage. For more information on this opportunity please contact Lynsey on 07920 428 847 or email lynsey.munro@actionforchildren.org.uk and quote reference number 3689. Click here for more information, contact details and relevant documentation. Local authority children’s services have been reduced to crisis-driven firefighting as a result of years of under investment. This has left them ill-prepared to cope with the torrent of extra challenges presented by the coronavirus lockdown, a report by the UK’s largest children’s charities warns today. New analysis by The Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, NSPCC and the National Children’s Bureau reveals the true impact of a toxic cocktail of cuts and a soaring demand for help. Over the last decade local authority budgets have been so squeezed that councils can only afford to get involved when children have reached crisis point and need costly interventions, like being taken into care. Now the charities are deeply concerned about how these already overstretched services will cope after the coronavirus crisis, with a crippling spike in demand expected, as the true extent of the devastation caused by the pandemic becomes apparent. It is feared even more children and families, ‘hidden’ from the view of professionals during the lockdown, could slip through the cracks, doomed to reach crisis point before any help is provided. Councils are in a Catch-22 situation because, while they know the best long term option is to invest in early intervention services like children’s centres and youth workers, they cannot afford to do this. Instead, they are spending a greater proportion of available funding on children in crisis today. Funding available for children’s services has fallen by £2.2 billion between 2010/11 and 2018/19 so they simply cannot afford to pay for early intervention services, leading to spending on early help dropping by almost half (46%) during this period. At the start of the decade, late intervention, including child protection teams and youth justice services, accounted for 58% of local authority spending on children and young people’s services. This had risen to 78% by 2018/19. The biggest increase in spending was for services for children in care, soaring by 40% from 2010/11 to 2018/19. The report finds councils have had to make difficult spending decisions to bridge the gap between the funding received from central government and what they need in order to keep services going. They are doing this by reallocating funds from other budgets and this has led to them being able to partially plug the funding gap, with spending on children’s services only falling by £536 million (a six per cent reduction) between 2010/11 and 2018/19. But the leading children’s charities warn this is not sustainable in the long run – and some local authorities were already spending reserves in order to support children’s services provision. The charities say the Government must help local authorities by injecting funds to repair the children’s social care system. This will allow them to be able to afford preventative early intervention services like family support and children’s centres. By doing so, fewer families will reach crisis point and so they will have to spend less on costly late intervention work. Barnardo’s Chief Executive, Javed Khan said: “We have long warned about the 'perfect storm' facing children's social care, and the gap between demand and resource will widen further as a result of coronavirus. "Even before the lockdown children were facing growing challenges, from knife crime and gangs, to cyberbullying and online grooming. Now there is a new wave of ‘hidden’ children, falling into poverty, experiencing domestic abuse and tipping the existing crisis in mental health into catastrophe. “We know there will be a massive increase in demand for support, with the effects of the pandemic felt for years to come. But the overstretched system cannot cope, and the Government must step in to fund vital early intervention services, so families get the help they need before reaching crisis point. "But it is not simply about money - we need to spend resources wisely. This is why Barnardo’s is taking a radical new approach - working with national and local partners and investing our own resource to co-design and deliver services that change children’s lives, and the system around them, for the better.” Deputy Chief Executive at Action for Children, Carol Iddon, said: “The coronavirus crisis has exploded into the lives of vulnerable families after a decade of decline in central government funding for services that protect children from harm. “It would be dangerously irresponsible to have an NHS with only A&E departments but no GPs, no cancer screening services and no public health education – yet this kind of short-sightedness is what we’re facing in children’s services. A system geared only for crisis, guarantees more children will end up in crisis. And we’re here because for ten long years councils have been backed into an ever-tighter corner, with no choice but to abandon early help services that stop family problems like domestic abuse or neglect from spiralling. “We risk being unprepared for the fallout for families from the coronavirus crisis. The right thing to do for children - and the smart thing to do for public finances - is for the government to invest in early help services now, to stem the torrent of children being taken into care and reverse the ballooning financial and social cost of years of underinvestment.” The Children’s Society Chief Executive, Mark Russell, said: “Even before the current crisis, we were gravely concerned that the huge funding shortfall facing local government would leave ever more vulnerable children in danger. “Now, the risks children continue to face inside and outside the home may be hidden from the view of professionals until the lockdown is lifted. Councils may then face a perfect storm of soaring demand to support young people amid massive new financial pressures. “They desperately need extra funding from the government to support these children and rebuild early intervention services to ensure many more young people get help before they reach crisis point.” Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said: “Children’s services, left reeling from a decade of cuts, now have to meet the complex extra needs of children and families brought on by the pandemic, pushing the whole system of support further towards breaking point. “In this climate, children’s social care is rapidly becoming a bare bones service that only responds in emergencies. “The government must act and give local authorities the funding they need to help children before their problems escalate.” NSPCC’s Chief Executive, Peter Wanless, said: “For a decade, local authorities have balanced reductions in funding against the growing costs of placing more children in increasingly expensive residential provision by reducing other services and shifting resources to plug gaps. “This was not sustainable before the coronavirus crisis and the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on children means it cannot continue. We need a new approach. “The government must take the opportunity of the spending round to set out a plan for investment in children services that will deliver the evidence-based interventions that can make all the difference for children and families, giving them the platform they need to have happy and fulfilling lives.” Appendix 1 - Research from councils Staff from three councils across England were interviewed for the report and spoke about the difficult decisions they are having to make. One worker, with over 10 years experience, said: “I've never seen the type of need from some of our families that we’re seeing now.” Another said: “We’ve got a declining overall budget at a time when demand is significantly increasing. So the council’s then faced with the choices of keeping statutory and non-statutory services and obviously it's the non-statutory services that start to go - but as you get smaller and smaller it becomes increasingly difficult to cut the non-statutory services. “When you put those choices forward then you have to be very clear as to what the consequences are and then do you try and protect children’s, or do you try and protect social care, or do you close this or stop doing that? Those are the choices that have to be made.” One staff member spoke about problems with the way they have juggled budgets to keep children’s services running: “What we can't keep on doing is saying demand has gone up again, trying to find some money. We’ll resort to use one-off resources and then our savings target just keeps increasing. We can't keep doing that year on year because the reserves will run out.” Appendix 2 - The North / South Divide The research found that while all areas had seen a reduction in funding, there was a noticeable divide between the North and the South of England. Combined, local authorities in the North of England have seen a cut of 27% to their funding compared to 23% in the Midlands and 21% in the South of England. The research also found there is an anomaly where deprived areas have had deeper cuts in funding than less-deprived areas. Whilst the least deprived have seen a 14% cut to funding, their level of spending has risen by 9%. In comparison, the most deprived have seen their funding cut by 32% and have reduced their spending by 14%. In 2019, regions in the North of England had higher rates of children in care, children referred to social services and child protection enquiries compared to regions in the South of England. This suggests the regions facing the greatest demand for children’s services are also the ones facing the largest cuts in central government funding. The coalition of charities says the government must redress this balance so areas of most need have adequate funding to support vulnerable families. Notes to editors Methodology for the reports To provide an estimate of central government funding for children and young people’s services we have used core spending power. This is detailed through the Local Government Finance Settlement published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). To produce figures about the spending on children and young people’s services we have reviewed publicly available section 251 data published by the Department for Education (DfE). In our analysis about spending on early and late intervention we have taken a broad approach to defining early intervention, incorporating some universal and targeted services. Early intervention funding covers spending on services that seek to work with children at a lower level of need. This includes: Children’s centres and other early years services: This includes local authority spending on the management of children’s centres and delivery of their services. It does not include the early education free entitlement. Family support services: This includes targeted family support (such as intensive family interventions, home care and contributions to healthcare for children) and universal family support (for example, home-school liaison, peer to peer support services and relationship support). Services for young people: This includes targeted and universal services for young people, such as: youth work, activities for young people, services to support young people’s participation in education or training, student support, and preventative substance misuse and teenage pregnancy services. Late intervention refers to those areas of spend primarily dealing with children who have reached a higher level of need. This includes: Youth Justice: This includes costs related to youth offending teams, secure accommodation and remand fostering costs. Children in care: this includes adoption and fostering services, residential care and cost of children leaving care. Child protection and safeguarding: this includes spending on local safeguarding children’s boards, functions under the child death review processes and social work. To estimate spending per child we have used population estimates per local authority based on a single age from NOMIS. Values have been adjusted to 2018/19 levels (‘real terms’) using the 'GDP Price Deflator', which measures the change in prices for all goods and services produced in the economy. About Barnardo’s Last year around 300,000 children, young people, parents and carers were supported by Barnardo’s through more than 1,000 services across the UK, such as young carers, care leavers, foster carers and adoptive parents, training and skills or parenting classes. We work to change the lives of vulnerable children in the UK and every year we help thousands of families to build a better future. But we cannot do it without you. Visit www.barnardos.org.uk to find out how you can get involved. Registered charity No. 216250 and SC037605 Follow Barnardo’s media team on Twitter @BarnardosNews About Action for Children Action for Children protects and supports vulnerable children and young people by providing practical and emotional care and support, ensuring their voices are heard and campaigning to bring lasting improvements to their lives. With 476 services in communities across the country, the charity helps more than 387,000 children, teenagers, parents and carers a year. Actionforchildren.org.uk About The Children’s Society The Children’s Society is a national charity that helps the most vulnerable children and young people in Britain today. We run services and campaigns to make children’s lives better and change the systems that are placing them in danger. We listen. We support. We act. Together with our supporters we’re improving the lives of children today and building hope for a better future. About the National Children’s Bureau For more than 50 years, the National Children’s Bureau has worked to champion the rights of children and young people in the UK. We interrogate policy and uncover evidence to shape future legislation and develop more effective ways of supporting children and families. As a leading children’s charity, we take the voices of children to the heart of Government, bringing people and organisations together to drive change in society and deliver a better childhood for the UK. We are united for a better childhood. For more information visit www.ncb.org.uk About the NSPCC The NSPCC is the leading children’s charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands. Using voluntary donations, which make up around 90 per cent of our funding, we help children who’ve been abused to rebuild their lives, we protect children at risk, and we find the best ways of preventing child abuse from ever happening. So when a child needs a helping hand, we’ll be there. When parents are finding it tough, we’ll help. When laws need to change, or governments need to do more, we won’t give up until things improve. Our Childline service provides a safe, confidential place for children with no one else to turn to, whatever their worry, whenever they need help. Our free NSPCC helpline provides adults with a place they can get advice and support, share their concerns about a child or get general information about child protection. Adults can contact the helpline 365 days a year. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Action for Children press office – 07802 802 679 / mediateam@actionforchildren.org.uk Foster Care Fortnight takes place every year as a celebration of the extremely valuable contributions that everyone involved in the fostering sector makes. From 11 to 24 May this year, we’re joining with our fellow fostering organisations to make a noise about our carers, our staff and the young people that keep pushing us all onwards to support and develop their futures. This year’s theme is #ThisIsFostering, which aims to give a fully rounded view of the foster care experience. Our foster carers are a vitally important part of everything we do – without their hard work, patience, compassion and resilience, we wouldn’t be able to provide safe and stable homes for many of the vulnerable young people we work with. We work collaboratively with our foster carers to ensure they have the training, the support, and the advice they need to provide the best possible outcomes for our Looked After children. But what does fostering mean to our foster carers? It’s often challenging, but also can be the most rewarding thing that our foster carers do. We asked some of our brilliant carers to discuss, in their own words, their honest view of the work they do. Kirsty and Philip explain: ‘It’s hard at the moment with COVID-19; it’s been our biggest challenge. It's been difficult trying to keep the children into a routine at times, while we also have to deal with additional needs made more difficult during lock down. Team Fostering have been with us during every day of this and have supported every decision we've made.” “Our supervising social worker has been a constant throughout the placement, always being there to support us whenever we've needed it, more often than not outside of hours. “ There’s also a lot to be learned from fostering, as Lindsay and Barry explain “Time does heal, although not fully, but you can make changes, simple but important ones that will have a positive impact on children’s lives. We now have a young man that is on Staying Put whom has made huge progress and we never expected it. He is now at college full time, in his second year and doing brilliantly. “ They continue, “Watching a child blossom and see that they are worthy, being able to observe their self-esteem and self-worth build up, to make decisions for themselves, without us having to make decisions for them is one of the best things we see. They learn that they do deserve to be loved and cared for and well nurtured. ‘ Karl and Maria echo this, “There’s not just one best moment in fostering, but far too many to mention. Seeing the children accomplish simple things from learning to ride bikes, swim and speak fluent English to name a few. Definitely seeing the children happy makes it worthwhile.’ Team Fostering are always looking for new foster carers, especially now while many children are stuck in difficult home situations during lockdown – if you’re interested in making a difference to a young person’s life, get in touch to take the first step on your fostering journey. Source: www.teamfostering.co.uk Ministers have thanked foster carers nationwide in an open letter published on 12th May. The letter was written by the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson and the Minister for Children, Vicky Ford. The letter is an expression of gratitude to foster carers who have remained dedicated to supporting children during the current Coronavirus pandemic. Children and young people are also acknowledged and thanked – for their resilience, flexibility and positivity in tackling the pandemic. The letter can be read here. Source: www.fostercarecooperative.co.uk The role
We are looking for a Fostering Social Worker to join our small developing Fostering Service located in the Yorkshire and Humber Area. The role includes recruiting and assessing new applicants as well as supporting a caseload of foster carers. This role will be mainly Monday to Friday during the day but there will be some flexibility required to meet the needs of the service. There is also an on-call rota which you will be required to undertake, 1 night in every 3/4 weeks. We promote and support agile working with all our Fostering Social Workers to enable you to work with a manageable caseload. Fostering experience and knowledge of fostering regulations is essential for this position. Part of the role is to develop and manage multi agency partnerships. This position also requires a good understanding of therapeutic parenting models. Our team consists of Admin Support, Social Workers, and Referral Officers. We also work in partnership with Chrysalis psychology services who support us, and our therapeutic work with children and young people. Click here for more information, contact details and relevant documentation. As the uncertainty continues about when the world will ‘get back to normal’, we are learning to adapt to this ever-changing situation. Working in fostering, adaptability is hugely important for our work, but it's now become an integral part of our day to day. For Foster Care Fortnight 2020, we asked Allison Poyzer, Placements Officer at Team Fostering to talk about how our flexibility and resilience has powered us through the lockdown period. “It was no surprise that staff at Team Fostering have risen to the challenge of this change to working practices and there has been very little, if any, disruption to services. We are business as usual, albeit a bit different! Staff are working from home who have previously only ever been office based, meetings and support sessions are taking place via video call rather than face to face and the importance of communication has never been more evident since our offices closed and those updates we would get while making a morning cup of tea are no longer happening. In the past couple of months, both staff and foster carers have become well acquainted with ‘home schooling’. It is fantastic that Team Fostering are able to provide support while our young people are out of school. As the guidelines suggest, Looked After young people are still able to attend school but if carers decide it is in the young person’s and family’s best interest for them to stay home then we would absolutely support their decision. Our Education Support Service provides regular ideas and activities for children of all ages. They have also been providing guidance on explaining this very complex and unprecedented situation to our young people as well as looking at ways to support the mental health of our young people. As parents, we may have been questioning our effectiveness as ‘teachers’, wondering if we are getting it right. It is difficult but try not to worry about children ‘falling behind’. Every child is in the same position and they will be OK. Learning occurs in all sorts of ways, not just sat in a classroom. The most important thing is to stay safe and give yourself a break… we are all finding our way through this as best we can. So, as we settle into our new version of ‘normal’ and adapt to the innovative and different ways of working, it is likely that we will look back on this time and think, wow! How did we get through that?! We will laugh at the unusual video call meetings that have been interrupted by our children requiring breakfast or a cat wandering in front of the monitor or the parrot giving a running commentary on what the dog is up to. We will be amazed that we would set an alarm for 3am to try and book an online Click and Collect slot for our weekly shop. We will rejoice in our resilience to rise to the challenge. We will marvel at our ability to adapt and be flexible to our situation. We will remember with fondness how we pulled together as a team and helped each other. At Team Fostering, we’ll remember the sense of community we created through group chats, video calls and friendly check-ins here and there. We’ll remind ourselves of the work we did to ensure that our carers, young people and our colleagues always felt supported throughout this time. With whatever challenge has come our way (and there’s certainly been a few) Team Fostering has responded with hard work, perseverance, flexibility, and always keeping children at the centre of everything we do. Team Fostering is a not-for-profit fostering agency covering the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. To learn more about joining us a as a foster carer, and to learn about the training, fees and support you'd receive, you can reach us in the following ways: Call us on 0800 292 2003 Email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk Submit an online enquiry form by clicking here Source: www.teamfostering.co.uk The director of The Fostering Network in Wales said that transforming the lives of young people through foster care has "never been more important". Colin Turner, who is also a foster carer, said the network is appealing for more people to foster at this difficult time. Every day around 3,700 foster families across Wales are looking after 4,800 fostered children and young people. Foster carers provide support and stability to those who can’t live with their birth families, and this commitment is ongoing during the coronavirus outbreak. The Fostering Network said carers have also been helping to maintain the children’s relationships with the people who are important to them but who they cannot currently see in person. It said: "Every year hundreds more foster families are needed across Wales to make sure fostered children can live with the right foster carer for them." Colin Turner added: "Foster carers help children and young people flourish and fulfil their potential, as well as provide a vital service to our society. Because this happens mainly in the privacy of their own homes – especially at the moment – their contributions too often go unnoticed." Terry, from Llanelli, has fostered for 15 years with his partner, and they are currently looking after two siblings and a baby. "What motivates me to foster is knowing that I had a loving, solid upbringing and I simply want to return what I received to the children in my care." – TERRY, FOSTER CARER Terry said: "Fostering will always have challenges but the rewards far outweigh these. Being a foster carer you have to be a strong, sometimes assertive, to get what's best for your child. You need to have patience, be tolerant and show empathy. Stability is key too – my first foster child was with me for 12 years. "Seeing a child achieve, however little it may be, is a step in the right direction." Source: www.itv.com Every day 55,000 foster families across the UK are offering 65,000 fostered children and young people a loving, secure and stable home, and this commitment from foster families is ongoing during the coronavirus outbreak. The UK’s leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network, is using this year’s Foster Care FortnightTM to raise awareness of the extraordinary dedication and work of foster carers at this time, while calling for more people to come forward to foster. The charity’s annual campaign to raise the profile of foster carers and the vital role they play in society is the largest of its kind in the UK and runs from 11-24 May. Foster carers accomplish incredible things every day, even in the face of a global crisis that has affected every one of us and impacted all aspects of our society. Despite the practical and emotional challenges that the coronavirus is bringing, foster carers continue to provide day-to-day support, love and stability to children and young people who can’t live with their birth families. They support children and young people’s education, health, and social wellbeing, and also help to maintain the children’s relationships with the people who are important to them but who they cannot currently see in person. Every year thousands more foster families are needed across the UK to make sure fostered children can live with the right foster carer for them. So, anyone who thinks they might have the skills and experience to become a foster carer is urged to contact their local fostering services. Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: ‘Foster care transforms the lives of children and young people as well as those of foster carers and their families. This has never been more important. Foster carers help children and young people flourish and fulfil their potential, as well as provide a vital service to our society. Because this happens mainly in the privacy of their own homes – especially at the moment – their contributions too often go unnoticed. ‘Foster Care Fortnight is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the work of foster families as well as recognising how transformational foster care can be for the children and young people who need it.’ Walt started fostering four years ago. Fostering had been on his mind for a long time but he was worried he wouldn’t be approved as a single male carer who doesn’t own his own home and is part of the LGBTQ community: ‘Only when I did more research I found out that none of this matters as long as you can offer a safe and loving home to children.’ Walt is now looking after teenagers and wouldn’t change it for the world: ‘To witness a teenager in your care connect with you, open up and put your trust in you is the most rewarding feeling and biggest compliment you can get.’ Source: www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/ |
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