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Naomi Taylor, a creative for brand agency Mr President, came to our attention after being featured in Campaign – a magazine for the advertising and media industry. In the article she described hitting ‘rock bottom’ as a care leaver before getting her life back on track and winning a prestigious industry award. She also outlined her frustrations with the lack of opportunities and support afforded to care leavers.
Four years ago, with the support of our members, The Fostering Network led a campaign to change the law to allow young people to stay with their foster carers up to the age of 21.
The introduction of Staying Put in England was a huge achievement with the potential to be life-changing for generations of fostered young people. Government, local authorities, charities, foster carers and young people recognised the unfairness in the fact that the average age for a young person to leave home was 24 (it’s 25 now!) and yet those in foster care had to move on six years earlier. All those involved recognised that we needed to do more to support care leavers in the transition to adulthood, and the new law sought to offer this support and stability.
However, the promise of Staying Put remains unfulfilled.
'In July 2008 my grandchildren came to stay with me under the supervision of children’s services. Their mother – my daughter – had struggled with mental illness and accompanying demons of drugs and alcohol for many years. They returned home to her several months later, but by spring 2009 they came back to me on a child protection order. They have remained with me ever since.
We have been disappointed with the negative portrayal of care and the experience of looked after children in some media over the last few days, surrounding the new documentary series by Lemn Sissay. While The Fostering Network always welcomes a focus on looked after children and the care system we feel that the coverage was not reflective of the reality of the vast majority of fostered children and young people.
Back in October, we spoke to Shane from Dreams beds, who was captain of a corporate challenge team made up of adventurous souls doing the National Three Peaks challenge - summiting Britain’s highest three peaks in just 24 hours! Despite facing the worst that Storm Callum could throw at them, all 14 of them competed the challenge which is an incredible achievement (even one of the challenge instructors commented on how rare it is for a large group to all complete it!).
They also raised over £12,000 for The Fostering Network which is outstanding and made it all the more worth it for the team during those tougher moments of darkness and driving rain. We caught up with Shane as he reflected a month on from this epic adventure…
We hear from Alex Shewring, the daughter of a foster carer, about what being a foster sibling means to her
There are a number of high profile, multi-million pound football teams in north London that footie fans can get passionate about, but the group that has been put together by the Care Leavers teams at Brent Council, also has much to shout about.
Having blogged for many years about fostering and raising children I have more recently looked at ways in which adults and young people can achieve happiness and contentment. Last time we looked at the benefits of thinking positively - for our children, young people and ourselves. Last time I looked at the benefits of thinking positively - for our children, young people and ourselves. This time I would like to look at how to achieve positive thinking.
