Record number prepared to give children a foster home

[Alison J Stevens]

Record number prepared to give children a foster home

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A record number of people have offered to open their homes to vulnerable children following a campaign in the Mercury.

More than 1,000 potential parents have called Leicester’s fostering and adoption centre since we launched Changing Children’s Lives last May – the highest number recorded in a year.

More than 60 children have been successfully matched with foster or adoptive families – about 10 per cent more than in a usual 12-month period.

Fiona Byron, inquiry officer at the fostering and adoption centre, said: “We are delighted that since Changing Children’s Lives started last year, more than 60 foster families and adopters have been successfully matched to children.

“Happily, all the children featured in the Leicester Mercury have been matched to families.

“However, every week brings more children into our care.

“These can be babies and toddlers or school-age children.

“Sometimes, whole family groups of two, three or more brothers and sisters come in who need a family where they can stay together.”

Foster workers said although the response to the campaign had been fantastic, less than one in 20 of those who had made an initial inquiry took their application further.

Publicity officer Paul Morley said there were children coming into the system all the time.

Children usually enter into foster care because of concerns that their own families are not caring for them properly. This could be because their parents are ill or experiencing other temporary problems.

Children are also removed due to reports that they are at serious risk of neglect or abuse.

Short-term foster families offer temporary homes until children can either return to their birth families or move on to a new home with an adopter or permanent foster family.

Paul said: “Some children may have only had bad experiences before they come to one of our foster families.

“The children might not understand what it means to be part of a family or to do the things that most families do.

“That’s the essence of what foster carers offer to children – the opportunity to feel part of an everyday family.”

“For those children who can’t return to their birth families, this gives them the confidence and stability to be able to move on to a new permanent home with an adopter or permanent foster family.”

Anyone interested in fostering or adoption is invited to an open day on Saturday, May 19, at St Martin’s House, in Peacock Lane, Leicester, between 10am and 2pm.

Visitors will be able to speak to staff, adopters and foster carers. For more information, call 0116 299 5800 or visit:

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Record-number-prepared-childr...