Why face-to-face support matters to foster carers
Foster Care Fortnight runs from 12-25 May 2025, and this year The Fostering Network has chosen a theme that is very close to my heart - the power of relationships. This is especially important in the fostering community as it’s the nurturing and stable relationships between foster carers and children and young people that make all the difference to ensuring children get the best experience possible, whilst they are being cared for away from their birth families.
That is why we have a programme of events arranged, from coffee mornings at John Lewis to a family fun day, that will bring together over 200 fostering households at different events. We understand the need for carers to be able to reconnect face-to-face with each other as well as virtually, with the opportunities that affords to network and develop new relationships, sharing the experiences and challenges in a supportive environment.
Peer support is so important for foster carers
At a time where we have moved to more digital working, we have also created a face-to-face space with support from CELCIS. The purpose of this is to bring together Supervising Social Workers, who provide the key link between fostering services and foster carers, so that we are nurturing these peer support relationships and networks, and sharing good practice with the aim of better supporting foster carers and their fostering families.
During the past year I have directly heard from over 100 foster carers, and nearly all carers would say they came into fostering to make a difference in a child’s life. Many say that fostering children is not always rosy and there are challenges, but it IS rewarding. During the Scottish Government’s ‘Future of foster care’ consultation, I heard directly from carers about the power of the relationship between them and their Supervising Social Worker - a role I have previously held in my career. Carers explained how this relationship, as well as the peer support from other foster carers, is what sustained them and their families to continuing to foster. So, in creating a space for Supervising Social Workers we are supporting those who hold the hand of the child.
What we are doing to encourage more people to consider fostering
In Scotland it is estimated that we have a shortfall of 350 foster carers. The Scottish Government has just launched a national recruitment campaign to encourage more people to consider becoming foster carers, which The Fostering Network are supporting via Fosterline, our confidential and impartial advice and information service to prospective and current foster carers.
Our State of the Nations’ Foster Care Report, which we published earlier this year, highlights the challenges of recruiting and retaining the number of foster carers needed, to give children and young people the safety and love they need to be the best versions of themselves.
Foster Care Fortnight is a time to pause and take a moment to respect, value and celebrate the carers we already have and recognise the importance of retaining these carers, and the important relationships they have built up and nurtured with children and young people in foster care.