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Front doors appear to encourage people to open their homes to foster children   

Published: 04/10/2021

A series of front doors installed by Foster Wales highlight those who have opened their homes to foster children in Wales as it aims to significantly increase the number and diversity of Local Authority foster carers. 

Several life-size front doors have been unveiled outside the Senedd as the new network of 22 Local Authority fostering services across the country, Foster Wales, invites the public to consider opening their homes to help accommodate the numbers of children in Wales who need care and support. 

Foster Wales is working towards increasing the number of foster carers in Local Authorities in Wales to help keep children in their local area, when that is right for them, which contributes to the national impact on the futures of young people.

At the close of March 2020, Welsh Government statistics revealed that 84% of children living with foster families were still able to live in their own area, maintaining familiarity with the community they already knew. 

Foster Wales aim is to encourage those who are thinking of fostering to do so in their local authority so that important relationships, which can help children thrive, can continue. 

Deputy Minister for Social Services, Julie Morgan said, “Foster carers in Wales have told me countless times about how rewarding the experience of looking after a child can be. I encourage anyone who can open their home so that those children who need our help can live happier childhoods and grow up into the people they want to be.” 

Today’s unveiling of life-sized front doors represents each of the 22 Local Authorities and the combined national goal of working together to help build better futures for children in Wales.  

Janette, a Local Authority foster carer with Foster Wales Flintshire said:

"Fostering was always something that I wanted to do. I had to consider the whole family. It has to work for everybody, and the local authority, I felt, provided that better matching process to make it work, and it has worked. The children make me proud every day. 

“For anybody thinking about becoming a foster carer, please pick up the phone because you can change the life of a child and there’s no greater feeling than that.” 

Flintshire’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Services, Councillor Christine Jones, said:

“We hope to welcome many more people into fostering with Foster Wales over the coming months. All children have a right to thrive. Anyone who fosters with the Foster Wales Flintshire team does so safe in the knowledge that we’ll be beside them every step of the way with all the dedicated expertise, advice and training needed to support their fostering journey.”

Foster Wales is encouraging more people like Janette to open up their homes to help build better futures for local children in need. 

Today’s event follows the recent launch of a wider Foster Wales campaign which aims to make a substantial national impact on the futures of young people in Wales.

To find out more about Local Authority fostering in Flintshire, visit www.fosterwales.flintshire.gov.uk.

^{Janette with Jill Jones of Foster Wales Flintshire with their Open Door in Holywell}