An appeal has been launched in Lincolnshire in a bid to find at least 60 foster families for children at risk or in need of temporary care.

The call came as two long-term foster caring families backed the Government's £2m campaign to attract more foster carers.

The county is in need of 60 carers to offer help with weekend respite or permanent homes.

Lincolnshire County Council's service manager with family, Leila Barron, said: "There just aren't enough people coming forward as foster carers and we struggle on a regular basis to find both short and longer term places for adolescents and anyone over the age of 11."

"Last year, we were quite successful in recruiting families and attracted 99 new families, of which 61 were fostering and 38 adopting."

One particular difficulty is finding families capable of taking groups of brothers and sisters, usually two or three but sometimes up to six.

Mrs Barron said that although Lincolnshire was a high performer on adoption, there was also a priority need for more adoptive families to come forward.

Annually, around 500 enquiries are made on fostering and on adoption, from which only a tenth go on to adopt.

Stronger efforts are being made to get people through the system as quickly and smoothly as possible. The nationwide campaign will broaden the search for carers to include single carers, people from a variety of age groups and carers from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

"We do need mums and dads, but we also need people who have never had children of their own," said Mrs McAndrew. "We need married and unmarried couples, and we need single men and single women. We need people of all ages, races and religions.

"It doesn't matter if you've got a job or if you're unemployed, if you own your own home or rent it. Everyone has the right to be considered as a foster carer."

There is a national helpline - 08000 965985 - for people to ring and a web site giving details of the campaign.

Alternatively, Lincolnshire families can ring social services direct on 01522 554066.

This story first appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo

Top

Back to news index