Help us make sure every childhasahappyhome

AS many as 750 loving homes are desperately needed for vulnerable children across Scotland.

At the start of Foster Care Fortnight today, Barnardo’s Scotland is asking would-be foster carers in Glasgow to offer children a stable place to live.

With same-sex adopting and fostering couples reaching record highs this year, Barnardo’s Scotland is calling on carers from every walk of life to come forward. The charity particularly specialises in placing children from diverse backgrounds in loving foster homes.

“We believe that good and loving foster care is crucial to giving vulnerable children the happy home they so desperately need and deserve. However, too many may never ex- perience the stability and care so many of us take for granted because there simply aren’t enough foster carers to meet these children’s needs,” said Siobhan Carroll, Barnardo’s Scotland’s assistant director for fostering and adoption.

Nearly half of all teenagers in Scotland are living with their third foster family since coming into care.

That is one of the findings in a new report by the Fostering Network Scotland.

The message is that it has never been more important to find people willing and able to foster teenagers.

More than a quarter of fostered teenagers in Scotland are living with at least their fourth family in care and one in 12 is with their 10th family in care.

Liz Kelly, 60, from Ardrossan became a respite foster carer five years ago and 16 months ago became a fulltime fosterer when a teenager boy came to live with her.

“Although you want to offer a permanent home, children need to go at their own pace,” said the former service development manager for Scottish Domestic Abuse Helpline who has a grown-up daughter who now has a foster child herself.

“Children just need the basics in life: they need to know they’re going to be warm, fed and cared for, the same as others in their class at school. That’s where the sense of fulfilment comes from for a foster carer – you’re fulfilling that need.

“You don’t need to have a big fancy house or lots of money, it’s just that the child is comfortable, they don’t need to be frightened, you’re making them feel good going to bed at night and have a big smile on your face for them in the morning. And that basically is what children need.”

With the biggest fostering service in the country, Glasgow has particular challenges.

“The diverse population means there is a need for a whole range of foster carers,” said Sarah McEnhill, operations manager at the Fostering Network Scotland.

“There are fewer children coming into care in general in the country but more children who do come in are going into foster care so that’s why we need more foster carers to look after them.”

Being moved from home to home can have a detrimental effect on children’s education, wellbeing and ability to make and maintain relationships.

Not being able to find the right foster carer also means that children too often have to live a long way from family, friends and school and are split up from their brothers and sisters.

Finding the right foster carer, at the outset of a child’s journey in care, can lead to stability, improved relationships and a positive experience of childhood.

During the run up to Foster Care Fortnight, members of the public have had the opportunity to ask our experienced foster carer and a child currently in care about their experience.

The answers to the questions will be published on Barnardo’s Facebook facebook. com/barnardos and @barnardos Twitter pages between June 1and 14.

You don’t have to have a big fancy house or lots of money