News

The Fostering Network’s Step Up Step Down project, a pioneering approach to support children to stay at home when they might otherwise end up in care, has won the Family Support Award at the Children and Young People Now Awards.

Step Up Step Down is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and is delivered in partnership with the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. Foster carers are at the heart of this innovative project, where they ‘step up’ when a family requires additional support and ‘step down’ when they feel more able to manage.

The experiences of Muslim foster carers and prospective foster carers are explored in a report launched today by leading fostering charity The Fostering Network. 

The Muslim Fostering Project report summarises the findings of a national programme which was led by The Fostering Network in partnership with Mercy Mission UK and funded by the Better Community Business Network. 

On Saturday, Yvonne Worsell, a foster carer with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, was presented with The Fostering Network’s Outstanding Contribution to Foster Care Award at the annual Northern Ireland Foster Care Awards. The awards are hosted by The Fostering Network in partnership with the Regional Adoption and Fostering Service.

Fostered children are being prevented from staying in touch with some of the most important people in their lives, according to a new report from the UK’s leading fostering charity.

Following the announcement from the Department for Education about further investment of £10 million in Staying Put – the scheme which allows care experienced young people in England to remain living with their former foster carers after they turn 18 – Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: ‘Staying Put has the potential to change the lives of generations of young people leaving care in England for the better.

on Monday 30 September, Graham Clifford was presented with The Fostering Network in Wales’ inaugural President’s Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to foster care. 

The Fostering Network, the UK’s leading fostering charity, is delighted to announce the sponsors of the Fostering Excellence Awards 2019. The awards celebrate excellence and outstanding achievement in fostering.

The following organisations and individuals are proud sponsors of the awards:

Kay Jackson, a prominent member of the fostering community in Scotland and foster carer with Barnardo’s Scotland fostering service, has been awarded The Fostering Network’s President’s Award. The award, which is part of The Fostering Network’s Fostering Excellence Awards, recognises Kay’s outstanding contribution to fostering over more than quarter of a century.

Debbie Douglas, well-known to many from The Only Way is Essex and hit podcast The Brights, has today (Monday 9 September) been awarded The Fostering Network’s President’s Award for her exceptional contribution to fostering.
 

Responding to the Children’s Commissioner for England’s annual Stability Index which shows a care system changing over recent years as more and more older children and teenagers with complex needs enter care, Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: ‘It will come as no surprise to anyone involved in the fostering sector that there is an increase in the number of teenagers in care and the comple