Foster Wales Cardiff needs more foster carers in our community to ensure local children can stay close to their families, friends, and schools, providing them with the stability and support they need. By increasing the number of foster carers, we can help more children thrive in familiar surroundings.

In January the national network of 22 Welsh local authority fostering teams, Foster Wales, launched a campaign to recruit an additional 800 foster families by 2026.

Foster Wales Cardiff joined the campaign, ‘Bring Something to the Table,’ to share realistic experiences from the fostering community to respond to common barriers to enquiries.

Some of these include a lack of confidence, misconceptions around criteria, and a belief that fostering doesn’t fit with certain lifestyles.

The latest phase of the campaign focuses on the role of foster care social workers and the ‘support bubble’ that exists around foster carers, to provide potential carers with:

1)    Information andunderstanding around the social workers’ role, and how the wider fostering community can support them.

2)    Confidence and assurance that social workers are caring, pro-active experts who work hard to support both young people and foster carers. 

3)    Motivation to start the process to become a foster carer via a Local Authority.

“I think the biggest inaccurate pre-conception about a social worker is that they will judge potential carers for their lifestyle or history,” said Debbie, a supervising social worker in Cardiff.

The latest ‘Bring something to the table’ campaign is guided by a newly commissioned survey to better understand preconceptions and motivations of social workers. There were 309 respondents and key findings include:

·       78% of social workers surveyed said they entered the profession to support and help families

·       18% of foster carers said negative perceptions of social workers were because of news coverage

·       29% of foster carers said before meeting a social worker they thought they would be ‘people with heavy caseloads and lots of paperwork.’

·       27% of social workers surveyed believe potential carers fear being judged by professionals

Julie is a Supervising social worker for Cardiff and has spent 10 years in the role. She reflected on what makes a great foster carer, and how Foster Wales Cardiff supports local foster carers.

She said: “As a supervising social worker it can be a unique role offering advice, guidance and support to a fostering family.”

Foster care isn’t always a permanent solution for the child/ren and if it is possible the best outcome could be for children to return to their birth family.

Julie is passionate about this, saying: “It is always a positive experience observing families being able to stay together after working hard to make changes that promote their children’s needs. For children it is very important to know they are not far away from their families and to be able to stay in a school they are comfortable and settled in.”

In the research, foster carers highlighted the importance of close and long-lasting working relationships to support young people to overcome challenges. They were also keen to dispel myths about social workers and the support you receive, and paid tribute to the dedication of their social workers:

“I have the best supervising social worker who is supportive, knowledgeable, and always there to listen to me and help whenever needed.” Sarah, Foster Carer, Foster Wales Cardiff

“We see our social worker regularly and she gives us lots of support.” Paul, Foster Carer, Foster Wales Cardiff

“Cardiff local authority have been absolutely brilliant, and I can’t speak highly enough of my supervising social worker.” Beth, Foster Carer, Foster Wales Cardiff

For more information about fostering, or to make an enquiry, visit: https://cardiff.fosterwales.gov.wales/