WARRINGTON Borough Council has launched a new search for people who can provide a happy home for local children.
Warrington is one of 23 local authorities backing the #youcanfoster campaign which aims to address the North West’s fostering goals.
The region-wide recruitment campaign has been launched to highlight the need for more than 700 new local authority fostering households, and invite local people to do something incredible.
It also aims to dispel some of the out-dated misconceptions, both about children in foster care and about who is eligible to foster.
Across the UK, more than 85,000 children and young people are in foster placements, 10,000 of them in the North West. Securing a stable home environment for these children is vital if they are to have the best chances in life and realise their ambitions.
The campaign is aimed at replacing foster carers leaving due to retirement and natural turnover, combined with an increase in the numbers of looked after children.
Warrington currently has more than 345 children and young people, aged 0-18, needing foster placements. We are keen to promote this campaign and urge local people and families to step forward and find out more.
Jenny, 52, who has fostered with Warrington Borough Council for two years, said: “Before my husband and I got married, we said we wanted three children of our own and to adopt a child too. Which I know is quite unusual to have that mind-set from the outset, but I think my childhood had a big impact on that decision. Terry had a very happy childhood, but my world turned upside down at 14, when my mum passed away.
“As an adult, I knew I had the empathy and understanding to help children who had been through trauma themselves. We stuck to our plan, had our three children and began to foster the fourth, with an independent agency. We subsequently adopted her; she’s now 30 with three children of her own!
“For four years, we ‘just’ had the four children, but when the children were a bit older, we sat down with them and decided we’d become foster carers again. We transferred to Warrington a little later after becoming disheartened with the lack of placements from the agency.
“After seeing both sides of the coin, fostering for an agency, then transferring to Warrington Borough Council, I can hand on heart say that the support, frequency and choice of placements with the Local Authority are far greater. I have a brilliant working relationship with my supervising social worker, we can have a good chat over a cup of tea, and I always know she’s listening to what I say. I feel respected as an equal partner in the ‘Team around the child’, and we all work together to give these little ones the most stable start in life.”
“We currently have five children in placement, one teenager who’s just the loveliest girl, and staying long-term, and four under 6! So it’s a very busy household.
“The best part about fostering is seeing children flourish in your care, there really is no feeling that compares to seeing them develop before your eyes. Helping to keep siblings together is another extremely rewarding part of the role.
“I adore being a foster carer and hope to continue for many, many years to come.’”
Warrington Borough Council’s executive board member for children’s services, councillor Jean Carter, said: “Fostering a child is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It gives you the opportunity to not only change young people’s lives, but to change your own for the better too.
“Warrington children need foster carers from all walks of life, whether you’re single, married, or living with a partner. If you have a warm heart and can offer a happy, loving home, then we’re looking for you.”
Recruitment priorities for the region include places for:
– Brothers and sisters – including sibling groups of 3 or more children/young people.
– Older children/young people – over half of all Looked After Children are 10 or older
– Children from BME communities, in particular black children and increasingly those from new migrant communities
– Long term – where children and young people are not be able to live with their own families for a number of years, if at all. Children and young people stay in a family where they feel secure, while maintaining contact with their birth family.
– Children with complex/additional needs including behaviour that challenges – this is an identified priority for a number of Local Authorities including the need for ‘short break’ carers (carers providing a variety of different types of part-time care. Stays for anything from a few hours each week to a couple of weekends each month, giving their own family or their full time foster carers a break.)
For more information on fostering visit http://youcanfoster.org/
