The Fostering Network is issuing a call for more foster families across the country and within our borough, as Foster Care Fortnight 2017 takes place across the UK from 8 to 21 May.

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.

Many foster carers who choose to foster groups of children, say how fostering has helped them to develop and evolve their current skillset, and how positive it feels to give a home to children who could not live with their birth family. Foster carers are also offered financial incentives, with figures rising for possible foster parents this year. Sutton Council has recently increased the amount that foster carers are entitles to and you can see a full breakdown of costs here:

(per week)	0-2	3-4	5-10	11 to 15	16 to 17
Allowance for the child	£142	£145	£163	£184	£216
Fee for the Foster Carer	£248	£248	£248	£248	£248
Weekly total	£390	£393	£411	£432	£464

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 Sutton to get in touch with their fostering service today’.

Notes to editors

1.    Go to Sutton Council’s fostering webpage for more information on Fostering by following the link.  
2.    The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading fostering charity. They are passionate about the difference foster care makes to children and young people. Transforming fostered children’s lives is at the heart of everything they do.
3.    Foster Care Fortnight™ is The Fostering Network’s annual campaign to raise the profile of fostering and to show how foster care transforms lives. It is also the UK’s biggest foster carer recruitment campaign. Foster Care Fortnight 2017 will take place from Monday 8 to Sunday 21 May.
4.    Overall, at least 7,180 new foster families are needed across the UK during 2017 to provide stable, secure and loving homes for record numbers of fostered children, according to figures released today from The Fostering Network. The need is for:

•         5,900 foster families in England

o   North East: 360

o   North West: 1050

o   Yorkshire & Humber: 610

o   East Midlands: 440

o   West Midlands: 770

o   East of England: 530

o   London:  830

o   South East: 830

o   South West: 480

•   200 foster families in Northern Ireland
•   640 foster families in Scotland

·   440 foster families in Wales