Hunt on for foster families in Halton

POTENTIAL foster carers in Runcorn and Widnes have been invited to find out more at open sessions at family-friendly venues.

A Halton Borough Council spokeswoman said a YouGov survey has revealed an 11% shortfall between the number who are interested in fostering and who go on to become full-time carers.

It also found that 1% of the adult population in the UK foster one child or more children, but 12% of UK adults have considered or are considering fostering a child.

The You Can Foster campaign hopes to bridge the divide and help hundreds of children find loving homes.

Members of the public can find out more by chatting to Halton Council’s fostering teams and carers at the information sessions being held at Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, 10am-2pm, today, Thursday, May 18.

The Weekly News reported in March that Halton’s fostering service had warned it was ‘severely stretched’ amid an ‘unprecedented’ national rise in the number of children entering care.

You Can Foster is a joint campaign between local authorities in the North West and Yorkshire to encourage more residents to consider fostering.

This year’s initiative was launched during Foster Care Fortnight, May 8 to 21.

Across the North West and Yorkshire there are around 11,525 children living in foster care.

Local authorities particularly need to recruit foster carers for certain groups of children including brothers and sisters, older children and young people, children from black and ethnic minority backgrounds, children who will be in foster care long term, and youngsters who need more specialist care.

Jenny Clayton, Halton fostering team principal manager, said: “When people approach Halton for the first time to enquire about fostering, our current foster carers can be crucial to helping them to decide.

“They are able to tell real life stories and share their personal experience of what it’s like to be a carer with a local authority.

“I urge anyone with the life skills and an interest in making a difference to come along to one of our events and have a chat with the team and our carers.

“Alternatively, complete an enquiry form youcanfoster.org/halton or give us a call 0800 195 3175.

“There are currently 264 children in our care and we want to train new foster carers to help look after those children waiting for a safe, stable home.”

For more information visit youcanfoster.org/ halton.

Alternatively call 0800 195 3175.