Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has launched an urgent appeal to encourage residents to consider becoming foster carers.

Like many fostering agencies, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fostering Service has experienced a decrease in public interest in fostering since the beginning of March 2022.

This is despite the need to find homes for local children and young people remaining high.

In Cambridgeshire, the service has an immediate need to find homes for over 10 young people, including teenagers, sets of brothers and sisters, and children with additional needs.

The fostering service is currently running a digital campaign ‘ChildrenAtTheHeart’ across social media which focuses on how children are at the heart of everything they do.

The campaign hopes to encourage people to consider fostering for the local authority, and to provide excellent support to its foster carers by way of regular training and access to experiences supervising social workers.

CCC spoke to a Cambridgeshire foster carer about what fostering meant to them.

“Fostering is opening up your home, your heart and your whole life to a child in need,” they said.

“We help them grow in every way we can, and the hurts of the past begin to heal.

“Being a part of that transformation is what makes fostering so rewarding.”

There are many ways you can foster for your local authority to meet the different needs of children and young people and to suit different lifestyles.

From long-term fostering to link care for as little as a couple of weekends a month, CCC can help find the best care option that works around individuals.

Chair of CCC’s children and young people’s committee, Cllr Bryony Goodliffe, said: “Our children and young people are at the heart of everything we do, and it is so important for us to be able to provide them with the stability, reassurance, and the love of a local family.

“We need our community to come forward and support those who need that support more than ever.”

To become a foster carer, you must be over 21, have a spare bedroom, and be willing and able to provide a stable, loving environment in which a child or young person can thrive.

If this is you, you can get in touch by calling 0800 052 0078 or emailing fostering@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.