Foster Care Fortnight™ is The Fostering Network's annual campaign to raise the profile of fostering and show how foster care transforms lives. Foster Care Fortnight 2023 took place from 15-28 May.
Foster Care Fortnight™ is the UK’s biggest foster care awareness raising campaign, delivered by leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network. Established in 1997, the campaign showcases the commitment, passion and dedication of foster carers. It also supports fostering services to highlight the need for more foster carers. Thousands of new foster families are needed every year to care for children, with the greatest need being for foster carers for older children, sibling groups, disabled children and unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Running from Monday 15 May until Sunday 28 May, our theme was #FosteringCommunities and we used the campaign to shine a light on the many ways people across the fostering community support each other.
Throughout the fortnight, The Fostering Network ran events, shared content on our social media channels and made as much noise as possible about the transformative power of foster care, with support from foster carers and others in the community who got involved too.
Whether you’re a foster carer, a social worker, young person or supporter of foster care you are part of a community making a real difference to the lives of young people, and we want to celebrate the impact you all have.
You can view all our resources from FCF23 here.
If you have any queries about Foster Care Fortnight please contact FosterCare.Fortnight@fostering.net
Highlights of Foster Care Fortnight 2023
There was huge buzz around Foster Care Fortnight 2023, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With fostering services throughout the UK celebrating the incredible difference foster care makes, a trip to 10 Downing Street, the announcement of major new Fostering Friendly Employers, more than 800 pieces of national news coverage and a hashtag reach of over 20 million, this year’s campaign was one of our biggest yet.
Here are just a few of the highlights throughout the UK. You can read our full round up of FCF23 highlights here.
Political engagement
Foster Care Fortnight has given The Fostering Network a platform to influence governments across all four nations, with staff attending 10 Downing Street, Stormont, the Senedd and Scottish Parliament. It’s been amazing to give foster carers the opportunity to share their experiences with politicians. Our Facebook has some pictures of these visits and some more highlights are below.
We also had an incredible 45 politicians supporting Foster Care Fortnight in some way, be this attending an event, hosting a roundtable or posting on their social media. This included 29 England MPs, one Welsh MP, 12 Scotland MSPs and 3 Northern Ireland MLAs.
Media and social media
Foster Care Fortnight featured in over 840 news pieces with many highlights including our chief executive, Sarah Thomas, on the sofa with BBC Breakfast. Our director of Scotland appeared on Scotland Tonight and John Lewis Partnership featured Foster Care Fortnight in the Waitrose Weekend magazine.
We had a huge amount of social media engagement over the fortnight on our own channels and with the Foster Care Fortnight hashtags. #FCF23 reached 24.5 million people with 13,200 interactions and #FosteringCommunities reached 21.1 million, with over 17,000 interactions.
Fostering Friendly
Throughout Foster Care Fortnight some big names joined our Fostering Friendly employers scheme, including John Lewis Partnership, Admiral, Alton Towers and Welsh Government, with many organisations making commitments to Fostering Friendly. This is a massive step forward and we are so grateful to have them all on board.
England events
In England, we launched our report on the retention and recruitment of foster carers. This was attended by Claire Couthino MP and Chair of John Lewis Partnerships Sharon White. Our membership engagement team visited fostering services activities, including Derby City Council's annual ‘Fosterval’ – a free festival dedicated to celebrating the incredible dedication of everyone in our fostering communities. Everyone enjoyed burgers, pizzas and ice cream and were offered a range of activities, from a wellbeing tent and music activities, to sports and a treasure hunt. Over in Stoke on Trent, the city council held their annual foster carers celebration day, where they invited more than 100 foster carers to come together and thank them for their contributions to fostering.
Northern Ireland events
As well as our successful launch, teams in spent Foster Care Fortnight hosting events for over 300 people in foster and kinship families. This included two family fun days, several coffee mornings and yoga and wellbeing sessions. Fostering Attainment and Achievement staff also held Wild about Learning sessions for children in primary school. In Step Up Step Down there were celebrations with families including a party for those in Dinosaur Club.
Scotland events
Foster Care Fortnight was incredibly busy in Scotland, with the team holding activities almost every day during the fortnight. To close Foster Care Fortnight, we had 250 people from fostering families gathered at Blair Drummond Safari Park and met with MSP Natalie Don, Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping The Promise. They celebrated the work of the Moving on Project, supporting positive transitions through and out of foster care, and enjoyed a fun-filled day at the park. An incredible end to a series of fantastic events held in Scotland to mark Foster Care Fortnight.
Wales events
Our team in Wales travelled to all corners of the country to spread the word of Foster Care Fortnight far and wide, stretching from Neath Port Talbot to Flintshire. Some of the highlights include afternoon tea with Fostering Wellbeing pioneers in Neath Port Talbot, providing an opportunity to thank them for all their support in growing the programme in their region. They also joined foster carers in at the foot of Snowdon to take part in the Foster Walk, where they met with more Wellbeing Pioneers to chat about the amazing peer support that’s in place across their local authority area.
It was fantastic to see how people went the extra mile to raise awareness of foster care. We're so excited for #FCF24 and hope you can join the celebration of #FosteringMoments!
