Blogs
Kathleen Toner is The Fostering Network's director in Northern Ireland. Here, as part of Foster Care Fortnight, she reflects on the impact that the foster and kinship foster families have on the lives of the children and young people in their care
I love Foster Care Fortnight!
As chief executive of The Fostering Network I spend a significant amount of time talking about, and trying to find solutions to, the many things that need to happen to make foster care the very best it can be for foster families and the children they care for – whether that be, for example, relating to the 15 extra hours free childcare being extended to fostered children in England, the introduction of a minimum fostering allowance in Scotland, or the status and professionalization of foster carers. Of course, that doesn’t stop during Foster Care Fortnight, but over these next 14 days the emphasis is rightly on celebration.
'You need a superhero in every family'…the insightful words of a five-year-old-boy, telling us how to make foster care the very best it can be.
Every 20 minutes a child comes into care in the UK in need of a foster family to look after them for as long as they need it – sometimes a few days, other times a whole childhood.
It's not every day your name is mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Lily Allen, Dame Jilly Cooper, and Princess Anne. Which is why respite foster carer, Vanessa Worrall, has every reason to be proud after being nominated in Citizen and Echo’s list of Gloucestershire’s 50 Greatest Women of All Time.
Vanessa has made a name for herself working in the community as a youth worker and now project manager at Together In Matson for two decades. Two years ago, she brought all her experience and knowledge of working with young people to the table and became a carer with Community Foster Care. The Fostering Network catches up with Vanessa to hear what she has to say about fostering.
Picking up from where we left off on part one of our young champions blog, here’s Cherise and Jak talking about their experiences with the programme.
It's exam season! And with that comes, for many, a period of stress.
Anxiety surrounding exams is very common - students feel pressure to perform well for a variety of reasons which usually stem from the three major themes of not disappointing their teachers, parents or foster carers, keeping up with their peers and ensuring entry to the college, university or job of their choice.
Becoming overwhelmed by stress can have extremely serious side effects - for example, it can disrupt sleep and trigger anxiety attacks, depression and eating disorders.
To combat this we have compiled a list of top tips from stress experts, foster carers and young people to help you cope with exam stress.
The great, late, Nelson Mandela once said that ‘the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.’ This is, of course true, but we like to think that young people are also the leaders of today which is why we have been so pleased to have had our young champions in Scotland come on board to influence decision-making and undertake awareness-raising activities.
Sue McKellar, project worker on our Young Champions programme, catches up with some of the participants for some feedback of their involvement, which will be documented in this three-part blog series.
