Do something incredible – foster a child

Bury people are being asked to ‘do something incredible’ and become foster carers to young people who need a stable family home.

The borough is one of 23 local authorities backing the regional #youcanfoster campaign, launched today (Monday 12 Sep), with the aim of recruiting 700 new fostering households across the North West.

The aim is to dispel some of the misconceptions about children in foster care and who is eligible to foster - and attract more people to step forward and find out more.

Across England, around 52,000 children and young people are in foster placements, 9,000 of them in the North West. Around 3,400 families foster for their local authority.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, deputy cabinet member for children and families, said: “Securing a stable home environment for foster children is vital if they are to have the best chances in life and realise their ambitions.

“In Bury, we have more than 40 children who are living in independent foster placements outside of the borough. We want to recruit more foster carers locally so these children and young people can live closer to school, friends and family. I urge families to come forward and find out more about becoming foster carers.”

Case study:

Lorraine and Ian, from Bury, are respite and short break foster carers for Bury Council.

“We have been short break/respite foster carers for nearly two years with Bury Fostering Team. All our children are now grown up and, though we work full time, we are still able to foster under the short break scheme. This has been great for us as we can do all the lovely things we used to do with our own family again with the children we care for!

“Our whole family has benefitted from our fostering, particularly our adult children who have all established their own relationships with the young person placed with us who had cerebral palsy and autism. We have found the fostering team to be really supportive of us and what we can offer and the flexibility they have shown has meant that we can fit foster caring into our lives. Our experience has been so positive that we intend to become mainstream foster carers in the future.”

Recruitment priorities for the region include places for:

1. Brothers and sisters – including sibling groups of three or more children/young people
2. Older children/young people – more than half of all Looked After Children are aged 10 or older
3. Children from BME communities, in particular black children and increasingly those from new migrant communities
4. 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.
5. 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, who provide a variety of care ranging from a few hours a week to a couple of weekends each month.
6. UACS – Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
7. Supported lodgings - preparing and supporting young people with the appropriate life skills to enable them to lead positive lives and live independently.

Charlotte Ramsden, a strategic director of children and adults services representing You Can Foster, said: “We have thousands of children who need foster care and we need more carers to provide the support and stable homes that these young people need to really thrive.

“People have preconceived ideas about why they might be ruled out as foster carers, but the only thing that matters is the support you can offer the child. Whether you are older, single or never had children, you can foster. Foster carers don’t need superpowers, they just need to be able to provide a solid and reliable foundation for children and young people to find theirs.”

For more information on fostering visit http://youcanfoster.org/

ENDS

Press release issued: 12 September 2016.

Picture: Bury foster carers Ian and Lorraine.