Shropshire Fostering launches new campaign to find five new carers per month

Shropshire Fostering have today (Friday 13 September 2019) launched their new campaign called ‘#GiveMe5’ in the hope to find 5 new foster carers each month.

The launch, undertaken by Shropshire Council’s fostering team and Signal 107 Breakfast Show Shropshire presenter Dickie Dodd, who will be supporting the campaign at Signal 107’s studios today, aims to find five new prospective foster carers per month, and at the same time highlight the five main types of foster care.

Signal 107 Breakfast Show presenter Dickie Dodd (left) and Ian Groom from Shropshire Council’s fostering team launch the new campaign

Ed Potter, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children’s services, said:

 “We’re really pleased to be launching this campaign with our foster carers and aim to find five new prospective foster carers, who are looking to start the process toward becoming approved, every month. We really want the people of Shropshire to support this drive.  Even if you’re not thinking about becoming a foster carer you could really help by simply sharing our social media posts.  Should we be successful it will really make a big difference to those children looked after by Shropshire Council.

“We also want to promote the five main different types of fostering.  Many people have a traditional view of fostering, but it can be flexible and there are many different types of fostering to suit all differing lifestyles; for instance, lots of people think that if you work you can’t foster – this simply isn’t true.”

Five types of fostering:

Short term

The aim of short-term fostering is to return the child or young person to his or her own family as soon as possible. This can be anything from an overnight stay, to several months, and possibly up to two years.

Long term

Long-term foster carers offer children and young people care and security in a family for as long as it is needed – often up until he or she can live independently.

Emergency

An emergency placement may be made when social workers feel it is essential to take the child away from a particular situation that is unsafe. A child or young person may come to you with no notice, and with little opportunity for you to gain information about his/her circumstances.

Shared care / Short break / Respite care

Shared care / Short break / Respite foster care are terms to cover a variety of different types of part-time care which maybe anything from a few hours each week to a weekend a month.

Supported accommodation

This is providing supported lodgings as a place for a person aged 16+ to live until they are ready to live independently.

For anyone wanting more information or looking to start the process the simplest way is to attend a fostering info event.  The next one is:

Tuesday 17 September 2019 at 6pm at Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND.

There is no need to register in advance, just come along at 6pm when the event will start with a short presentation.  There will be an opportunity to chat with the fostering team afterwards. 

For more information about fostering if you’re not able to make the event see www.shropshirefostering.co.uk