Shopping for food, cooking meals, washing clothes. There are many skills that young people need to learn before they are ready to live independently, but managing money is one of the most important.

Saying goodbye to children can be one of the most challenging aspects of being a foster carer.

In this blog, Vicki – a single mum of a 10-year-old boy and foster carer for the last seven years – talks about the grief she has felt when saying goodbye.

For many, retirement is a stage of life to settle down and take things easy. For Richard Haynes, a 75-year-old from Gloucestershire, it provided an opportunity to take on another challenge: fostering. Among other things, Richard worked with youth offenders and as a Scout leader, but since 2017 he has opened his home to unaccompanied asylum seeking children and local children in need.

We have created an exit interview toolkit for fostering services to capture all of the reasons why foster carers leave their services. Free to download for members, the information captured can then be used by the service to improve practice and inform foster carer retention and recruitment strategies. 

Petrina Banfield is a writer and foster carer whose passion for adoption and fostering was shaped by the discovery that her father was an identical twin who had been separated
from his siblings during the Second World War. It was her father's experience of growing up in care that led her to become a foster carer in 2003.

Her fostering service has introduced a letter writing scheme from foster carers to the children they are looking after. Here she explains how the scheme works and some top tips for letter writing.

Ollie Sills is a foster carer in North Wales and, until recently, was a director of Colwyn Bay Football Club. He helped the club introduce a 'free season tickets for foster carers' scheme.

Selina is a fostering social worker who is care experienced herself, and her foster family still play an important part in her life. Selina is also a great supporter of our Keep Connected campaign, recognising the significant role foster carers play in the lives of young people, both while they are living together and after the young person moves on.

There has been a tremendous response to our #changeafuture theme this Foster Care Fortnight from our members and supporters as well as decision makers around the UK and the wider public, with more than 1,000 pieces of media coverage and countless social media posts raising awarenss of the transformational power of foster care in the UK.