Shropshire foster carer urges more potential carers to overcome fear of rejection

Telford based carer Julie Thomas has been a foster carer for over 21 years with Family Care Group but believes that increasingly many adults considering fostering are being  put off the idea because they fear they will never be accepted.

Recent Ofsted figures have shown a dramatic 10 per cent drop in the number of foster carers nationally during the last 5 years. In response the Government has pledged to try and create 10,000 new care places for vulnerable children and provide more support for foster carers and those wanting to foster for the first time.

Julie said:  "Fostering a child is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding and exciting things you can do as an adult. Helping to transform an often vulnerable young person into someone who can start to feel confident in themselves and enjoy life is an amazingly fulfilling experience.

 She added : “Yet increasingly in recent years less people seem willing to take that leap and become a carer, sometimes because they believe they will never be accepted as one. This seems to me such a terrible shame and most importantly I feel it is something that could be avoided, if they only knew more about what is needed from them.”

 Julie says she had to overcome her own preconceptions about fostering when she first considered making the move more than 21 years ago.

Julie said: “When I first decided I wanted to be a foster carer, I initially believed I could not foster if I was working full time. I thought I would be deemed unsuitable but I soon discovered that wasn’t the case.

 “Likewise today many people thinking of fostering for the first time think they have to be married or at least in a relationship to be suitable. They can also believe that their sexuality could be an issue, that if they are gay and possibly in a same sex relationship that they are somehow ineligible to be considered as a carer.

Julie adds that people may also mistakenly feel they have to be a homeowner before being considered as a carer.

She adds : “It’s possible to  think that you have to own their own home, that living in rented accommodation is not acceptable. None of these are true. The simple truth is that if you have a spare bedroom in your house or flat, you are already in a good position to be a potential carer. That is the reality.”

The recently announced Government plans include potential include measures to expand the criteria for who can become foster carers and to provide better support for carers to be able to fit fostering around their busy and working family lives.

Julie adds: “There is no doubt that fostering a vulnerable child is a challenge and it brings with it highs but sometimes lows as well. But the highs conquer all in my experience and that makes it worthwhile time and time again.

 “Looking back, for example, on how a child or young person was when they first moved in with us and how they have developed since then is a massive thrill and one that one stays with you.”

Further details on the new proposals can be found on the Government’s website.

Learn more about how to become a foster carer at: family-care.co.uk/fostering