retention

November began with the selected 12 English local authorities joining us for a workshop as part of the Department for Education funded project to Support fostering services to recruit more foster carers.

October kicked off with The Fostering Network’s annual showcase event, our conference which this year carried the theme of ‘The future of foster care – a focus on children and young people’.

Next month sees one of the greatest migrations of young people across the UK as hundreds of thousands leave home to begin their university education. Empty nest syndrome is well documented, and many foster carers reference a quiet home, missing the hubbub of young people and, genuine quote, "someone to make me a nice cup of tea" as a reason to consider fostering!

I feel a touch bereft this morning. While I know a number of you will be grateful for TV returning to relative normal, for me, the summer of sport so far has been incredible. Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix have come as standard, but this has of course been a football World Cup year. We’ve also had the Grand Départ from Yorkshire for the Tour de France, which was breathtaking. There is the small matter of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow so all is not completely lost.

And breathe… or maybe not if you’re part of the team processing enquiries, doing home visits and more. But this is a good thing. Hopefully you’ve achieved your expectations and received enquiries from people who could become just the type of foster carers you need. If not, get in touch and tell me why.

There seems to be no let-up in the pace of this year’s Foster Care Fortnight activity, typified by the excellent work you’re doing in your local communities. Our media monitoring systems are reporting over 700 pieces of coverage across the UK. Many of you have been in touch telling me of activities still to come, so we may hit and surpass the magical 1,000 mark!

I start this month’s blog the day after April Fools’ Day, so rest assured that this month’s AKC blog is wind-up free… although I'm sure some will beg to differ!

The i’s have been dotted and t’s have been crossed, and we can now announce the 15 local authorities that we will be working with to March 2014 to support them in their recruitment of foster carers.