attracting

FCA in Worcestershire is one of a number of services targeting the ‘empty-nesters’ of children who have left for university this month in their latest foster carer recruitment campaign.

I’ve managed to catch up with a number of you post Foster Care Fortnight™ and have been delighted to hear about all of the activity that took place. Please spare 10 or so minutes to complete the Foster Care Fortnight™​ evaluation survey if you haven’t already done so.

Welcome back, full of energy, innovative ideas and drive to recruit and retain the foster carers you need for 2015.

As the calendar year draws to a close, this month’s Attracting and Keeping Carers blog reaches you a little earlier than normal to avoid being lost in the festivities.

November began with the selected 12 English local authorities joining us for a workshop as part of the Department for Education funded project to Support fostering services to recruit more foster carers.

October kicked off with The Fostering Network’s annual showcase event, our conference which this year carried the theme of ‘The future of foster care – a focus on children and young people’.

Next month sees one of the greatest migrations of young people across the UK as hundreds of thousands leave home to begin their university education. Empty nest syndrome is well documented, and many foster carers reference a quiet home, missing the hubbub of young people and, genuine quote, "someone to make me a nice cup of tea" as a reason to consider fostering!

I feel a touch bereft this morning. While I know a number of you will be grateful for TV returning to relative normal, for me, the summer of sport so far has been incredible. Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix have come as standard, but this has of course been a football World Cup year. We’ve also had the Grand Départ from Yorkshire for the Tour de France, which was breathtaking. There is the small matter of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow so all is not completely lost.