Stockport fostering community to share proudest moments during Foster Care Fortnight 2024

Stockport Council is encouraging the borough’s fostering community to share the moments that have mattered to them as it marks Foster Care Fortnight from 13th to 26th May 2024.

Stockport Council is supporting Foster Care Fortnight in a bid to recruit more foster carers and shine a light on Stockport’s foster carers and fostering community.  

Foster Care Fortnight is The Fostering Network’s annual campaign to raise awareness of the transformational power of foster care for children and young people who cannot live with their families and to celebrate and showcase the commitment, passion and dedication of foster carers and the fostering community.

Over the two weeks, Stockport Council is inviting its foster carers get involved with this year’s Foster Care Fortnight theme, #FosteringMoments. These moments are different for everyone in the fostering community, however they all have a significant impact on fostering families and the children and young people that they care for.  For foster carers, this might be the moment they were approved as a foster carer, or the moment a young person in their care hugged them for the first time.

Foster care enables local children and young people to stay local to everything they are familiar with already. In Stockport there are 252 fostering households caring for over 300 local Stockport children and young people, but more foster families are needed every year. The hope is that this fortnight will encourage more people in the borough to consider foster caring. There is a particular need for foster carers for younger children, older children, sibling groups, disabled children and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children separated from their families.

Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of Stockport Council said,

“Stockport Council is delighted to be supporting Foster Care Fortnight which is a fantastic opportunity to highlight and celebrate the work of our foster carers and their families in our communities.  There is a huge shortage of foster carers in Stockport, so we hope this campaign highlights just how important foster carers are – they are a lifeline to our local children and young people in need of a home, providing them with support, stability and love.

“If you have ever considered fostering, now is the time to get in touch. Our fostering community is open to people from all walks of life and backgrounds – you just need to be over 21 and have a spare bedroom. 

“Alongside the privileged opportunity and satisfaction to make a lasting difference to lives of children and young people, you will receive training, guidance and support and tax-free financial allowances to ensure you have everything you need to provide the very best care and are rewarded for being a foster carer. 

“As a foster carer, you can support children and young people who have had a difficult start in life to reach their full potential. You can transform lives. We are really looking forward to welcoming new foster carers to our community.”

Local foster carers Lisa and Clive, who foster older children, are among those to have shared their proud fostering moments. Clive commented:

“My favourite moment is when our young person got her GCSE results, her school attendance had been very low when she’d moved in with us at the beginning of her GCSE year and we successfully managed to get her to re-start regular school attendance, agree to extra Council funded tutoring support and work towards her exams. She ended up getting seven GCSEs with good grades and is now at college doing a BTEC/A Levels. A real life-changing turnaround, we are so proud of her.”

Lisa said:

“My proudest moment was taking the young person to her prom – knowing I had helped create the stability and the environment that meant she could have and enjoy that special teenage event and being a normal ‘teenager’.”

During the fortnight the award-winning film “Any of Us” will be shown in local cinemas in Stockport and the fostering team and local foster carers will be hosting events and information drop in sessions:

• Wednesday 15 May – Fostering information session at Stockport Town Hall, starting at 6pm.
• Friday 17 May – information stand at John Lewis Cheadle between 11am and 1 pm. 
• Saturday 18 May – Foster Walk at Vernon Park starting at 12 noon (by café)
• Sunday 19 May – fostering stall at Bramhall Duck Race and Family Fun
• Friday 24 May – information stand at Stepping Hill Hospital (by canteen) between 11am and 1 pm. 
• Saturday 25 May – Worker Bee Market, Reddish

The council holds regular monthly information sessions on the second Wednesday of every month at Stockport Town Hall starting at 6pm.  Information about the information sessions, the different types of fostering and what is on offer to foster carers can be found on the Stockport Council website or by calling the recruitment team on 0161 474 3400.