The annual Fostering Excellence Awards take place in autumn and they shine a spotlight on the young people, foster carers, social workers and others who make a positive contribution to fostering.

You can nominate someone who you consider to have made an outstanding contribution to foster carer in the following categories:

The survey, CUTS - the view from foster carers (England):  the impact of austerity measures on fostered children and the families that care for them, carried out in February 2016, highlighted the negative impact of local authority budget cuts in a number of areas, including practical and financial support for foster carers, children’s access to their social workers and other services, especially mental health services.  

“While we cannot expect dramatic and immediate change in educational outcomes for young people in care, it is positive to see a consistent improvement over time. There is clearly still a long way to go, but we know that being in foster care can improve educational outcomes; University of Oxford research (2015) showed that educational outcomes are higher for fostered children compared with those living on the edge of care.

The Reclaim Care digital platform, created as part of the Department for Education funded Inspiring Voices project, allows children, young people, and care leavers, to share their successes in the form of a meme and to upload it into the gallery of achievements.

Sara Lurie, director of The Fostering Network Scotland, said: ‘Scotland is taking a progressive stance when it comes to the higher education of care experienced young people, and we must say that this is a positive step in the right direction.

‘While over time more must be done to narrow the inequality gap in education between children in care and their peers at all levels of education, giving those children and young people a tangible and realistic goal to aim for will inspire many to go on to higher education.