Campaign aims to challenge foster care stereotypes

As part of its Bring Something to the Table campaign, Foster Wales aims to correct the misunderstandings surrounding young people and the experience of fostering. 

The campaign was launched to mark Care Day last month – a day designed to celebrate and recognise social workers, those who have experience of care, and the importance of the sector. 

Molly*, from Bridgend, who is in foster care, said: “We get judged before people even get to know us. 

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“People just think we’re troublemakers who do drugs and get pregnant underage. It’s just not true.”  

For almost a year, we’ve been working with foster carers across Wales, turning their true-to-life experiences into 3 short adverts, which we hope will encourage the entire nation to ‘bring something to the table’ and support young people in care. pic.twitter.com/pH9unJYxaj

— Foster Wales (@foster_wales) January 8, 2024

Alistair Cope, Head of Foster Wales, told CYP Now: “A lot of the messaging around Care Day is myth-busting, commonly around teens in care. 

“I’ve seen first-hand the common sort of misconceptions people have; that teens in care are bad news or come with a whole host of issues.” 

He explained that foster carers do not need to have particular experience, adding: “They [people considering foster care] think perhaps it takes some kind of superhero or magician to foster – someone with defined skills.  

“What we’re trying to do with the campaign is show that everybody has something they can bring to the table.” 

Cope’s top priority is to encourage people to foster through their local authorities in a bid to ensure children are not moved to out of area placements. 

He said that around “85 per cent of children [fostered through their local authority] stay within their locality”, this helps children to keep the same friends, school and access to family time, which maintains the stability essential for looked-after children. 

 Cope added that this statistic drops to around 20 per cent when a child is placed through private residential or foster care agencies. 

According to StatsWales, the number of children in care has reached more than 7200.  

“We’re at unprecedented numbers of children in the care system. We’ve got a really ambitious aim to recruit 800 carers by 2026 across Wales, and this campaign is just the start of that process”, said Cope. 

*Names of some young people have been changed to protect their identities.