A new campaign has been launched to find foster carers in Bristol who can provide a loving and secure home for children and young people.

Bristol City Council is particularly eager to find families who are new to fostering but would be interested in providing a stable environment for youngsters who, for different reasons, cannot live with their own families.

The authority hopes the drive will help reduce the number of children in Bristol who are in need of carers.

Joanna and Steve Webster-Green both worked with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities before they started fostering in 1987 after the birth of their first child.

Their first and only placement was an 18-month old girl. She was physically and mentally impaired and needed 24-hour care.

The placement was initially an emergency short-term placement, but the couple felt the young girl would fit into the family and decided to care for her long term.

Joanna, 42, said: "Fostering is great fun but is not all a bed of roses.

"We foster a disabled child but there are any number of different children who need foster care. It is rewarding to do this kind of work.

"Fostering has its difficult times and can be stressful but we've done the best job we could have done, as a family and as individuals.

"We've since had another daughter - so we now have a family of three.

"By caring for another child our own children have grown up knowing there are children less well able than themselves and they've learnt compassion and learnt to share their things and their parents."

Councillor Jos Clark, executive member for children's services, said that like anyone, foster carers can move away or retire - which has left Bristol in need of new carers.

She said: "We are always looking for foster carers and we are not at capacity. Many people count themselves out of fostering as they don't think they will be considered.

"We need carers from all backgrounds and all walks of life to foster children and young people in Bristol. The more carers we have, the better chance we have of finding the right match between child and carers."

Three taxis are currently driving the message across Bristol by displaying adverts for fostering.

They provide information and show photographs of a wide range of people to demonstrate the diversity of carers in the city.

Around 1,000 posters will be given to existing foster carers to display in their local communities and adverts will appear in local magazines and newspapers from beginning of the month.

Meanwhile, children's minister Maria Eagle has launched a consultation on proposals to establish, for the first time, a national minimum allowance for foster carers.

The proposal, which forms part of a wider package of measures to improve support for foster carers, will lead to a fairer system of payments across the country.

Anyone who is interested in fostering should get in touch with the Bristol family placement recruitment team on 954 8545 or visit www.bristol-city.gov.uk/fostering to request an information pack.