More people urged to step forward and become foster carers
New foster carers are urgently needed to step forward to help look after children across Wirral.
The council is seeking more people from all walks of life to become foster carers.
Nationally there are rising numbers of children who need foster care and an ever-increasing need for individuals and families willing to support some of our most vulnerable children.
Being in care can be hard but we know that our children get the very best start in life when they live with foster carers.
In Wirral there are 793 children in our care many of them desperately needing families and individuals willing to help them and give them a home. Without carers in Wirral, children may have to move away from the area and everything that is familiar to them.
Cllr Kathy Hodson, chair of Wirral Council’s Children, Young People & Education Committee, said:
We need foster carers to provide a safe and loving home for local children right here in Wirral. If we don’t have enough, we are faced with having to place children outside the borough or into residential care, which is often not ideal.
When something happens that means a child can no longer live at the family home, it can be even more distressing for them to be told that they have to move outside of the area. This means they can’t stay at their school or see their friends because they have had to move away, which can, in some cases, be hundreds of miles away.
That is why we need more foster carers and a wide range of people with different skills and backgrounds. That includes ages, single people and all sorts of family sizes. Put simply, the more carers and different types of carers we have, the better chance we have of finding an ideal match with a child or young person. And the more children that remain in Wirral and who benefit from caring and well supported foster care, the more chance that they will grow into the adults that we want and need for our whole area to flourish.
As we start a new year, it is the perfect time to think about fostering and how you can make a real difference by providing a new start for local children. So please get in touch and start the new year off in an amazing way.
Some foster carers offer a long term ‘forever home’, while some offer short breaks to support a child staying with their family. However you choose to help, all Wirral foster carers are supported through a team of experienced social workers. Full training and support is provided to help foster carers develop the skills to ensure the children and young people they care for can flourish. We also have a network of local foster carers who have vast experience and are happy to share their knowledge.
We need to recruit more foster carers than ever before. If you or someone you know has room in their home and heart to foster, or even if you are thinking about it and have questions and just want an informal chat, please get in touch. You can email fosteringadmin@wirral.gov.uk, call us on 0151 666 4616, or visit the website wirralfostering.org for more information.
