This Foster Care Fortnight, could you help transform children’s lives in Highland?

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Fostering Fortnight

Highland Council Fostering and Adoption service is issuing a call for at least 20 more foster families in the Highland Council area to come forward and be assessed as Foster Care Fortnight 2017 begins across the UK.

According to The Fostering Network, the UK’s leading fostering charity which runs Foster Care Fortnight, over 7,000 more people with the right skills and experience are needed to offer loving, stable and secure homes to children and young people across the UK. In Highland there is a particular need for those people who might be able to care for children with complex health needs, sibling groups and primary and secondary school age children.

Many foster carers, who choose to foster these groups of children in Highland, say how well the Highland Council Fostering and Adoption service has supported them to develop and evolve their current skillset in order to give a home to children who could not live with their birth family.

A number of foster families care for teenagers on a permanent fostering basis. Many of these young people are flourishing in all areas of their lives and doing particularly well and achieving in school and leisure activities. Some of these young people are also supported by their foster carers to maintain contact with their birth families and are able to manage this with the help and support from their foster families. Highland Council need more people to come forward to help support a young person through the turbulent teenage years and guide them on the right path for their future as adults.

Fostering in Highland

Fostering in Highland

Alison Gordon, Resource Manager from Highland Council Fostering and Adoption service said: 

“Prospective foster carers need a range of skills and qualities, including patience, the ability to listen, being a team player, a sense of humour and much more besides. They will receive training and support from Highland Council Fostering and Adoption service, as well as a fee and an allowance to cover the cost of looking after the children in their care. If you have a spare room and think you could offer the love and care that a fostered child needs, please contact our fostering service at 01463 703431 or email fostering@highland.gov.uk.”

Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network, said: 

“Foster families can transform fostered children’s lives, giving them the chance of having the childhood they deserve, a childhood that they otherwise may not have had. Foster carers are amazing people, performing an invaluable role that really serves the whole community.

“A wider pool of foster carers enables fostering services to be able to match the needs of each child more closely with the skills that each foster carer brings, and to find the right home for each child, first time. That’s why we are urging people in Highland to get in touch with their fostering service today.”

8 May 2017