Vulnerable children are being placed in foster care families up to 500 miles from their home due to a desperate shortage of carers, the UK’s leading fostering charity has warned.
On average a child in care is placed more than 18 miles from their family and those who experience multiple placements are more likely to be placed more than 20 miles away.
The Fostering Network, which was pointing to research by charity Become, said some 7,200 foster families are needed to plug the gap.
Former Children’s Minister Edward Timpson, whose own family fostered over 90 children, joined calls for people to consider fostering a child as he said carers have “never been more needed”.
There are more than 90,000 children in care in the UK, with one going into care every 15 minutes. Some three quarters of them live with foster families.
A shocking one in three kids in care are forced to leave their local authority - often separated from their siblings - because a foster family cannot be found to look after them nearby.
Londoner Kahina, who has been a foster carer since 2018, cares for a sibling group of four, alongside her three birth children.
“I didn’t want to separate the siblings. At first only two of the children came here and two went to another foster carer, but I could see how close the children were to each other and I wanted to keep this,” she said.
“There are memories which make me feel proud. A mum of one of the children I looked after hugged me and thanked me for looking after them. Another time one little boy did not stop crying the whole night and I stayed with him the entire time.
“The next day he followed me around wherever I went, and we saw a complete change in him over the next three months.”
Tory MP Mr Timpson said: “I’ve seen first hand how a loving foster home can give a child the chance to rebuild their lives and look forward to a brighter future.
“It is also one of the most rewarding things our family has ever done. I would encourage anyone thinking about doing the same to come forward and register their interest in becoming a foster carer at a time when they’ve never been more needed for vulnerable children right across the country.”
Mervyn Erskine, chair of trustees at The Fostering Network, said: “We can’t lose sight of the fact we urgently need more foster carers to come forward to care for children locally.
"When a child comes into care needing a foster home, it is essential they can live with a foster carer who can meet their individual needs, in the area they belong – ultimately, everything they need to be the absolute best version of themselves.
“The fostering community is open to people from all walks of life and backgrounds – there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ foster carer. You can foster no matter your age, gender, relationship status or sexual orientation.
“Deciding to foster is a huge step that will change your life, as well as the lives of the children you care for – Foster Care Fortnight is the ideal time to find out more."
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