Could you improve children’s lives in Kent following Foster Care Fortnight?

Kent County Council (KCC) needs to recruit new foster carers to provide safe and loving homes to vulnerable children and families in the county.

The council has been backing Foster Care Fortnight 2020, a national awareness raising and recruitment campaign run by The Fostering Network (11 – 24 May) and is now calling on residents to get in touch to find out how they could improve lives through fostering.

Foster carers are needed to provide day-to-day support, love and stability to children and young people who can’t live with their birth families or offer a struggling parent a loving home where they can develop their parenting skills. During the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, KCC’s fostering services are continuing to work hard and remain committed to achieving stability and permanence for Kent’s vulnerable children now and in the future.

Last year the council met its target to recruit 120 new foster carers and is seeking to meet this target again this year by recruiting a wide and diverse range of people regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender identification, religion or sexual orientation. Carers can be single or in a relationship, own or rent their own home, have their own children or be child-free. Carers for children and teenagers are needed with a particular focus on carers for sibling groups, emergency bed and parent and child placements.

Since 2019 the number of children in the care of the local authority has risen by 229 to 1,823. However, despite around 120 new families, couples and single people taking the plunge and creating new fostering placements last year, many more are still needed.

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 and 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.

Support for foster carers is always at hand from many different agencies depending on need as well as advice and help from existing foster carers.

Parent and child placements are another option when thinking about fostering which involves placing a parent, who is experiencing difficulties, and their baby or young child in a foster home.

The foster carer helps and encourages the parent to develop their skills and occasionally provides parental care whilst observing how the parent looks after the child and keeping records.

Sue Chandler, Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s services said:

"Foster Care Fortnight is a fantastic way to celebrate the amazing job our foster carers do in Kent. I would also like to thank them wholeheartedly for their continued support for Kent’s children especially during the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every child in Kent deserves a safe and loving home and I would like to encourage our residents to speak to our fostering team about they how might be able to improve a child’s life by becoming one of Kent’s foster carers.”

To foster with KCC you need to:

• Have a spare bedroom
• Be a full-time resident in the UK or have leave to remain
• To be able to give the time to care for a child or young person, often on a full-time basis

In return you will receive an excellent reward package including financial benefits, local training, career progression, holiday entitlement and 24-hour support.

If you are interested in finding out more about Kent Fostering visit kentfostering.co.uk or call on 03000 42 00 02 to find out more. Do something amazing today and Foster for Kent.