South Swindon MP Robert Buckland is throwing his support behind Foster Care Fortnight, the UKs largest foster care awareness campaign, and urging constituents to consider becoming foster carers this May (10 – 23).
With over 8,500 new foster carers needed across the UK in 2021, becoming a foster carer could be the ideal opportunity for those with the right skills to give back to their community and improve the lives of children who cannot live with their birth family.
Being a foster carer is about more than just providing love for children, it is about what skills you bring to ensure that you can support their development and growth. Foster carers need to have listening, observational, and communications skills, as well as confidence, resilience, and patience. They must be able of offer stability, to be a team player, and sometimes most vitally of all, foster carers need a sense of humour.
During the Covid19 pandemic, over 55,000 foster carers provided stable and loving homes to more than 65,000 children across the UK, and you could add to this number. By becoming a foster carer, you become part of a community who are dedicating their lives for the betterment of others with the support of your fostering service and The Fostering Network
Robert Buckland MP said:
“Foster carers play a crucial role in our care system and have again shown in the last challenging year that they have the skills needed to help our children to develop and grow.
“I would like to say a big thank you all of the foster carers here in Swindon who do such a fantastic job.
“Being a foster carer is to take on a role like no other, so if you are looking for a new lifestyle in the aftermath of this dreadful pandemic and you believe you have the right skills, please consider becoming a foster carer.”
To find out more about fostering, and to find your local fostering service, please visit: https://thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/could-you-foste
Ends
About Foster Care Fortnight
Foster Care Fortnight is the UK’s biggest foster care awareness raising campaign, delivered by leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network.
It has taken place every year for almost 20 years, with the campaign showcasing the commitment, passion and dedication of foster carers. It also supports fostering services to highlight the need for more foster carers.
Thousands of new foster families are needed every year to care for children, with the greatest need being for foster carers for teenagers, sibling groups, disabled children and unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
The theme of Foster Care Fortnight 2021 is #WhyWeCare.
The theme of #WhyWeCare allows The Fostering Network and fostering services to recognise the contribution of the whole of the fostering community following the most challenging year of our lifetimes. We will be highlighting the work of fostering services, social workers, our own helpline and membership team, alongside personal testimonies from foster carers and children and young people living in foster care.
About fostering
Every 20 minutes another child comes into care needing a foster family in the UK. Every day there are about 65,000 children living with 55,000 foster families.
Fostering offers children and young people a home when they are unable to live with their birth family. Sometimes children only stay with a foster family for a few days, while others will live with their foster family for their entire childhood and beyond.
Many of these children have experienced abuse or neglect prior to coming into care. Fostering is often their first positive experience of family life. Despite the trauma experienced by children coming into care and their difficult start to life, good foster care can help to transform their lives and enable them to flourish.
Fostering offers children a safe and caring home and plays a big part in supporting them to maintain links with their birth family. There is a need for thousands more foster carers every year. Foster carers come from a variety of backgrounds and bring a wide range of life and work experiences with them. They work as part of a team of professionals and receive training to develop the skills required to meet the needs of children in their care. Alongside this professionalism, they offer children love, warmth and stability.
The Fostering Network works to make foster care the very best it can be for fostered children and the families that care for them.
