Highlights throughout the UK
England
In England, we launched our report on the retention and recruitment of foster carers. This was attended by Claire Couthino MP and Chair of John Lewis Partnerships Sharon White. Our membership engagement team visited fostering services activities, including Derby City Council's annual ‘Fosterval’ – a free festival dedicated to celebrating the incredible dedication of everyone in our fostering communities. Everyone enjoyed burgers, pizzas and ice cream and were offered a range of activities, from a wellbeing tent and music activities, to sports and a treasure hunt. Over in Stoke on Trent, the city council held their annual foster carers celebration day, where they invited more than 100 foster carers to come together and thank them for their contributions to fostering.
Northern Ireland
As well as our successful launch, teams in spent Foster Care Fortnight hosting events for over 300 people in foster and kinship families. This included two family fun days, several coffee mornings and yoga and wellbeing sessions. Fostering Attainment and Achievement staff also held Wild about Learning sessions for children in primary school and Pathways to University days for teenagers. In Step Up Step Down there were celebrations with families including a party to close Dinosaur Club.
Scotland
Foster Care Fortnight was incredibly busy in Scotland, with the team holding activities almost every day during the fortnight. To close Foster Care Fortnight we had 250 people from fostering families gathered at Blair Drummond Safari Park and met with MSP Natalie Don, Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping The Promise. They celebrated the work of the Moving on Project, supporting positive transitions through and out of foster care, and enjoyed a fun-filled day at the park. An incredible end to a series of fantastic events held in Scotland to mark Foster Care Fortnight.
Wales
Our team in Wales travelled to all corners of the country to spread the word of Foster Care Fortnight far and wide, stretching from Neath Port Talbot to Flintshire. Some of the highlights include afternoon tea with Fostering Wellbeing pioneers in Neath Port Talbot, providing an opportunity to thank them for all their support in growing the programme in their region. They also joined foster carers in at the foot of Snowdon to take part in the Foster Walk, where they met with more Wellbeing Pioneers to chat about the amazing peer support that’s in place across their local authority area.
Innovative ideas
We can’t let Foster Care Fortnight come to a close without acknowledging some of the incredibly fun and creative ways people have chosen to promote fostering. The Parks and Green Spaces team at North Lincolnshire Council replanted one of their flowerbeds to spell out ‘Fostering’ – a super creative way to highlight fostering to passers by.
Sticking with the floral theme, pupils at Ebbw Fawr Learning Community School joined together to form an outline of a daisy. It was a fantastic effort which took a lot of logistical planning from everyone involved – and the end result was just brilliant and brightened up our social media timelines.
Last but not least – Foster for Bradford teamed up with their local train station, Bradford Forster Square to temporarily change its name to Bradford FOSTER Square. The signage directed people to an information board highlighting why the station’s name and changed, sharing information about Foster Care Fortnight.
