Voices of Foster Carers

Our Fostering Journey

As a child, I grew up watching Home and Away and always wanted to be like Pippa. My husband and I often talked about fostering, but it never seemed to be the right time. There was always something that got in the way.

Then, when our daughters were aged four and two, we saw an advertisement about fostering and felt that the time was finally right. We looked at several agencies but decided to foster with our local authority, as it felt right to help keep children within their own city and community.

Over the following months, we completed our training and met some amazing people who became close friends. Social workers visited our home to get to know us and learn about our family, including our daughters. We talked about our backgrounds, our experiences, and how we worked together as a family unit.

Once our assessment was completed, we attended the fostering panel and were approved to foster one child.

Our first placement was a baby boy. He was absolutely amazing. Like any new experience, there were challenges at first, but they never put us off. Now, 15 years later, we have fostered more than 40 children.

Throughout our fostering journey, we have provided short-term, long-term, emergency, and respite care, supporting children and young people with a wide range of needs.

Life has changed enormously over the years, but always for the better. We even moved to a larger home so that we could care for more children.

In 2023, I was honoured to receive the BBC Radio Stoke Carer of the Year Award, which was an incredibly proud moment for me and my family.

Our daughters have been a huge part of our fostering journey from the very beginning. When they were younger, they attended the Children of Foster Carers Support Group. This gave them the opportunity to meet other children in fostering families and helped them navigate both the highs and the lows that can sometimes come with fostering.

Looking back, fostering has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. It has not only changed the lives of the children we have cared for, but it has also enriched our own family in ways we could never have imagined.