Simply Fostering News
June 2015
Foster Care Fortnight 2015
Foster Care Fortnight 2015 was launched on 1st June and will run until 14th June this year. The annual campaign, which raises awareness about fostering, is co-ordinated by the charity The Fostering Network and hopes to encourage people to foster a child. As part of this year’s recruitment campaign the focus will be on finding homes for children who have disabilities, for sibling groups of children and also teenagers.
With the number of children coming into foster care rising, Foster Care Fortnight will provide plenty of opportunity for exposure in the media which will help to raise the profile of fostering. Fostering services all around the UK, including independent fostering agencies and local authorities, will be participating in this year’s campaign and will be working towards the recruitment of more foster carers.
Teenagers in Care Moved Too Often
Research carried out by the fostering charity The Fostering Network has shown that teenagers who are living in foster care in the UK are being moved too frequently. The survey, based on 1600 children in foster care, showed that a quarter of fostered teenagers are living in at least their fourth foster family, over a third are in their third foster home and one sixth are in their fifth.
A spokesman from the charity has spoken about how being moved from foster home to foster home can have a negative effect on a child’s well-being, their education and their ability to create and maintain relationships with people. It also means that often, teenagers are living away from family members and are separated from their siblings. According to the charity, the figures reflect the need for more carers, over 8,000 in the coming years, to meet the demand.
New BBC Documentary Series Announced
A new BBC documentary is due to be aired on 7th June, called Protecting Our Foster Kids. It follows on from the previous successful documentary called Protecting Our Children, which was BAFTA nominated in 2012. The new social care series will focus on foster children and carers in Dorset and the social workers from Dorset council who work with them.
The series will offer access to the foster families and the professionals they work with, and will provide an insight into the difficulties in providing placements when there is high demand for more foster carers.
Sainsburys Donate Toys for Local Event in Sandwell
A supermarket in the West Midlands has made a generous donation of toys for foster children in Sandwell. Sainsbury’s store in Oldbury supported a participation event at the Coneygre Centre, Tipton, where foster carers and their foster children enjoyed arts and crafts, music and other fun activities.
The support from Sainsburys was praised by Councillor Simon Hackett, who said the contribution they gave enabled the event to be bigger and better for the children and young people who are looked after by Sandwell Children’s Services.
