It is Foster Care Fortnight, the annual campaign run by The Fostering Network. The purpose of Foster Care Fortnight is to raise the profile of fostering and highlight the important role foster carers play in the lives of children and young people in care. After the success of last year’s campaign, The Fostering Network decided on the same theme for this year – #FosteringCommunities.

They say it takes a village to raise a child and the same is true with foster care. For fostering to be a success, a whole community of people must be involved. At Focus, we have a family focussed approach to fostering and we believe in building strong relationships with our fostering families. We are here for our carers and the children they look after at every stage, working together to provide the best possible outcomes.

At Focus Foster Care we are passionate about supporting children, families and foster carers in the West Midlands area. As well providing foster care to those in need, we also support student social workers by offering placements to university students.  

Sophie is our most recent student social worker and joined the Focus family in November 2022. As her time with us draws to an end, we want to wish Sophie good luck with the rest of her studies and for her future career in social work.  

Welcome back to our Journey to Becoming Foster Carers blog series. In this three-part series, we are interviewing our newest foster carers – Sarah and Ross. In the first interview, Sarah and Ross shared their experience of the application and assessment process, you can read that post here. If you want to know a little more about what life as a fostering family is really like, this second interview is a must read.  

Life as a fostering family can have its challenges, just like all family dynamics do. Fostering can be hard work and can be demanding at times, but looking after children is also immensely rewarding. Do you want a closer look behind the scenes of life as a fostering family? If so, keep on reading, Sarah and Ross have provided a candid look at life as a fostering family.  

Focus Foster Care is growing. We are regularly welcoming new foster carers to our team, and we hope to see even more carers join us in 2023. In December 2022, Ross and Sarah became our newest fostering family and we recently sat down together for a chat about their experience so far, as first-time foster carers. Sarah and Ross have two birth children, a girl and a boy, and are also fostering two siblings (another boy and girl). Sarah is a teaching assistant and Ross works on an ad hoc basis as a funeral director, he reduced his work hours so he could fully commit to fostering.

Sarah and Ross were extremely generous with their time and knowledge, and have shared everything they have been through, right from why they decided to foster up until having their first children placed with them in December. If you are thinking of starting a career in foster care and want to know more about becoming a foster carer, this new blog series is for you.

Have you been thinking about becoming a foster carer? If so, we are glad to hear it. Thinking about becoming a foster carer is the first step to helping children in your local area. More foster carers than ever before are needed here in the UK, and it’s time to stop thinking about it and to start your fostering journey. Here are 3 reasons why 2023 should be the year that you finally join our team and become a foster carer.

In June this year, Focus Foster Care’s very own team manager, Emma, was nominated for the prestigious title of ‘Best LP Practice Supervisor’ at the Birmingham City University ‘Social Work Practice Learning Celebration Day’. We could not be prouder to announce that Emma went on to win the award. 

The Fostering Network recently released data showing that there is currently a need for over
9000 new fostering families across the UK. A lack of foster carers can lead to siblings in need of
foster care becoming separated. If you want to become a foster carer, have you considered the
possibility of fostering sibling groups? In this blog post, we are sharing all the information you
need about fostering siblings. With your help, more brothers and sisters can be kept together
during their time in foster care.

Welcome back to our latest post in our ‘Meet The Team’ series. These blog posts are here to help new and aspiring foster carers get to know all the team here at Focus Foster Care. We are a small agency but our team is made up of hard working and dedicated people. Recently, a new supervising social worker joined the team. Without further ado, let’s hand you over to Lucy…