It's Foster Care Fortnight - Bolton Needs You
16th May 2012
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This fortnight is Foster Care Fortnight.

Organised by the UK’s leading charity for foster care, The Fostering Network, this special event runs from the 14th – 27th of May, and aims to raise the both the profile of fostering and the numbers of foster carers throughout the UK. The annual awareness-raising campaign, backed by seven British stars, hopes to encourage a diverse range of people with the right skills and qualities to take steps to help children in care.

Since 2008, the number of children living with a foster family has risen by more than 6,000 (according to Family Law Week). However, this is in addition to an existing shortage of more than 10,000 carers. The fostering system in the UK is still under immense strain.

Celebrities such as Oscar-nominate film star Samantha Morton, and upcoming celebrity cook Lorraine Pascale, who both grew up in care, have been joined by other big names including Gareth Gates, Fern Britton, Gabby Logan Jacqueline Wilson and Tim Rhys-Evans, in standing alongside The Fostering Network.

According to the charity, children are moved around the care system more, which brings increased disruption to their lives. Some of these children end up living with fosterers who lack the specific skill set required, whilst others have to move a long way from home, or are separated from brothers and sisters, running the risk of losing touch with family and friends.

At such a pivotal, future-shaping time of life, the negative effects can be felt for a long time.

Statistics show that a child comes into care every 22 minutes in the UK. As things stand, there aren’t enough foster families, and fostering services such as The Fostering Network, must recruit at least 8,750 more in in 2012. The Network hopes, as a result of Forster Care Fortnight, and the help of public figures, more people will come forward to be trained as skilled foster carers, and they can, in turn, help to give society’s most vulnerable children a better future.

To find out more about fostering, see films and blogs at www.22minutes.org.uk. For more information, and to discover if you or someone you know can help, see www.fostering.net

For information about fostering in Bolton, see www.bolton.gov.uk/fostering, call 0800 107 1564, or email: fostering@bolton.gov.uk

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