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Caerphilly County Borough’s foster carers’ stories show everyone can ‘bring something to the table’ to support local children in care.

Posted on : 09 Jan 2024

New campaign aims to inspire people from all walks of life to consider fostering with their local authority.

There are more than 7,000 children in the care system in Wales, but only 3,800 foster families.

There are currently 100 foster carers in Caerphilly but over 50 more are needed, including long term, short term and emergency carers.

Today, Foster Wales - the national network of 22 Welsh local authority fostering teams - set out with the bold aim of recruiting over 800 new foster families by 2026, to provide welcoming homes for local children and young people.

Foster Wales Caerphilly has joined the new campaign, ‘bring something to the table,’ utilising their greatest asset – current foster carers – to share realistic experiences of foster care and explore the small but significant human attributes people possess that can make the world of difference to a young person in care.

Foster Wales has spoken to over 100 people to develop the campaign– including foster carers, social workers, teachers, members of the public, and care leavers.

The responses from these groups highlighted three key things stopping potential carers from enquiring:

A lack of confidence in their skills and ability to support a child in care.
The belief that fostering doesn’t fit with certain lifestyles.
Misconceptions around the criteria to become a carer.

Armed with this knowledge, Foster Wales has drawn on real stories of carers in Wales to show that local authority fostering is flexible, inclusive, and comes with extensive training and professional development opportunities.

“We already had all the skills we needed to become foster carers – and more people need to know they have the skills too”

Kath is one of Caerphilly’s foster carers, she said “Being a foster carer means you can change young person’s life you can give them a chance of a family life for the first time. Show them how life can be and if they work at it they can achieve good things as adults. They can be a part of something good give them safety stability and love what other job can do that”

Wales is leading the way in children’s services

Currently, Wales is in the process of a whole system change for children’s services.

The changes proposed in the 2021 co-operation agreement between Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru made a clear commitment to ‘eliminate private profit from the care of looked after children.’

This means, by 2027, care of children that are looked after in Wales will be provided by public sector, charitable or not-for-profit organisations, and the need for local authority foster carers is greater than ever.

Gareth Jenkins, head of Children’s Services said "At Foster Wales Caerphilly, our foster carers are amazing at supporting some of the borough’s most vulnerable children. They are kind, empathetic and experienced and do a wonderful job at making those they care for feel safe and secure.

We need to recruit more foster carers to ensure that all of the children who need it, have a warm and welcoming home, with the right foster carer for them.

We would encourage anyone who thinks they can make a difference to a child’s life by bringing that kindness, empathy and experience to the table and get in contact with Foster Wales Caerphilly and start their fostering journey now.”

The campaign begins on Monday 8 January across TV, streaming services, radio, digital, social media, and with various events in local communities across Wales.

For more information about fostering, or to make an enquiry, visit: Foster Wales Caerphilly

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