Wiltshire Council teams up to support the need for more foster carers nationally

Thursday, 20 July 2023 01:00

To coincide with the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament, Wiltshire Council is teaming up with local authorities from across England with the aim of achieving one goal – to recruit a new generation of foster carers.

25 local council fostering teams have re-formed Local Councils United – a virtual league with each team showcasing their football-inspired films to cheer on the benefits of fostering for your local council.

As the nation follows with pride our England Lionesses, local councils take pride in their carers and the children & young people they inspire, encourage and coach to be the best that they can be.

Football players, carers, young people and staff are all featured in the film clips which will play out each day on social media during the World Cup campaign with the hashtags #FosterGreatness #FosterWithYourCouncil

Cllr Laura Mayes, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services at Wiltshire Council said: “We are extremely proud of our foster carers who make such a difference and play a key role in supporting the children and young people they care for to achieve their goals.

“We know there are a number of challenges which are part of being a foster carer and we provide support to our carers at every stage of the process including through the assessment, training and supervision. Our foster carers do an amazing job every single day and we want more people to join our fostering community and step up and do something great.”

Wiltshire Council will be featured on Tuesday 15 August and will include Rob and his birth daughter Erin who trains with Melksham Town FC talking about the benefits of fostering. Rob and his wife Lucy have their own four daughters and fostered with Wiltshire Council for five years.

Rob said: “Wiltshire Council has been fantastic at looking after us, giving us the suitable training. They’re always at the end of the phone and we have a great relationship with our social workers as well which has been fantastic. We’ve certainly enjoyed our experience and let me tell you it’s not easy all the time, it’s certainly tough but those things in life which can be tough are often the most rewarding.”

You can watch Rob and Erin’s clip here :

https://youtu.be/Efwbxa4ilak

The fostering team will share each of the council’s campaigns every day so please follow @FosterWilts

Do you have what it takes to be a fostering champion? If you do, Wiltshire Council is waiting to hear from you.

Foster carers need to be over 21 years of age, have a spare bedroom, time to care for a child and a willingness to care and seek to understand young people who have experienced trauma and loss.

For more information, visit www.fosteringwiltshire.uk email fostering@wiltshire.gov.uk, call 0800 169 6321 or text the word Foster to 60002.