Could you offer a young person a break?

A recruitment drive is under way for a service to provide short-term foster care for families after its use fell dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic amid concerns over the spread of the disease.

Our fostering service is looking for new carers to sign up to a short break scheme to offer support to young people while their families are given the chance to take a wellearned break.

Potential candidates would need to be able to offer at least one weekend a month.

Short breaks are usually for regular weekends or overnight stays and sometimes for outreach support or day care in between.

The aim is to ensure that the children have a positive experience, their needs are met and they are given the opportunity to enjoy new experiences and meet new people.

The child’s family benefits from a muchneeded rest, knowing the youngster is in safe hands.

The skills, experience and interests of carers are matched with the needs of the children and those involved in the scheme will often build a strong bond with the youngster and their family over time.

Prior to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, the service was being used by 15 young people, who had about 60 short break nights each annually.

However, while the offer of the service remained in place at the start of the pandemic, take-up fell to zero due to concerns over the spread of the virus among potentially vulnerable children. There are now just six short break carers in North Yorkshire as some have moved to other types of fostering, retired or left the service. The service hopes to recruit at least five new carer households across the county.

A total of 17 young people are on Fostering North Yorkshire’s register for the scheme, with seven of them currently waiting for a carer.

• To find out more, email

or call 01609 534654.