In our final piece on the council's children's services role, CHRIS HUMPHREYS meets the foster carers who step in when it isn’t possible for a child to return to their family home.

WHEN it becomes impossible for a child to stay with their family it’s the council’s army of foster carers who step in to fill the void and to make the difficult experience as comfortable as possible.

Their role places them in testing situations, seeing first hand the distress and emotional challenges that vulnerable children experience.

Often they drop everything to be there for a young person who is in need at short notice, fitting fostering around their own lives.

As part of our series on children’s services, we met three of the people who play that vital role, as well as the team responsible for their recruitment, training and ongoing support.

“We have foster carers covering a whole range of needs, from respite care, to emergency, short or long term,” said Sharon Iles, the assistant fostering team manager.

“What carers offer is what fits in with their lifestyle and other commitments, everyone is different.

“Children come to us because families aren’t coping, or it could be via the police, because of child protection concerns, children running away or missing, some are unaccompanied asylum seekers or even family emergencies.”

Swindon currently has about 130 foster carers, with 327 children in care and requiring placements.

Sharon said: “There’s a national shortage. In Swindon we don’t have any residential care, so fostering is our main resource.”

Short term placements are where a child is with a foster carer while a longer term care plan is being established.

Long term placements logically follow on from that but equally it could be that a child goes back home to their parents or to other family members.

Respite care involves looking after a child for a shorter period either while they are taking a break from their own home before returning or perhaps from a long term foster placement.

Emergency care is what it says on the tin with carers sometimes getting barely any notice at all to take a child who needs a bed for the night or weekend.

“Sometimes these children have no other option,” said foster carer Julie Simkiss.

“It could be that they’re with the police for example and if an emergency foster carer can’t help it means they stay in the cells for the night.

“Any help we can give to make sure the child isn’t in that situation is important.”

Julie is a career civil servant and after deciding she wanted a change in her life she opted to become a foster carer.

“The journey has been a roller coaster,” she said. “The emotions you go through with training and your first placement are huge but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

The majority of children who go into foster care do not end up being permanently separated from their families, a priority that sits at the heart of the work of the wider children’s services teams.

But that departure inevitably has an emotional impact on the foster carer left behind.

“You wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t have a little cry,” said Julie. “It can be quite sad.

“But it’s part of your journey - you have to have emotions but you also need to be strong for the next child.”

Julie is single and doesn’t have any children of her own, but it was no barrier to her getting into fostering.

Fellow foster carer Jinette Harris has a 17-year-old daughter and two step-children aged 14 and nine.

She said: “I treat the child or any children that come into my house as I would my own kids or their friends.

“We like to write a welcome card and get some essentials to make them feel like part of the family.

“My own children have been fine with it, in fact I think they’re really proud that we’re doing something helpful and useful for others.

“It can be difficult to witness some of the anger displayed for example, but we’ve been offered support to get through that.”

For Kara Nicholas it was as the children in her own family got older that she missed having the youthful energy around.

“I missed doing all the fun things we used to do when they were much younger,” she said.

“I wanted to be able to enjoy that time again - to go off and do swimming or other fun activities.

“They’re little sponges at that age, they soak it all up and really enjoy it.

“It’s lovely to see children come into your home and grow, trust, relax and enjoy their time. That’s really rewarding.”

All the foster carers we spoke to said at the application stage they had questioned, whether they would be suitable or fit the profile the council was looking for.

But foster carers aren’t produced from a single mould, which is part of what makes them so effective.

“I work with someone who is gay, doesn’t drive, and really wants to foster,” said Kara.

“He felt he couldn’t do it and my advice was just go, speak to someone, have the conversation.

“Everyone I speak to about it says ‘I would love to do that, if only the kids were a bit older, or I had another spare room.’ Just ask the question. You’d be surprised.”

“I thought that because I worked it might have been an issue,” said Jinette. “But here I am.”

“Our message would be just come and talk to us, don’t screen yourself out,” said Sharon. “We want to hear from you.”

Visit www.fosteringadoptionswindon.org.uk to get your questions answered.

Adoption: Creating a ‘forever home’

Based alongside the fostering team is a smaller dedicated group recruiting and supporting people wishing to adopt.

They look to identify those prospective parents who can provide a ‘forever home’ but, just as with fostering, applicants don’t have to fit just one profile.

Assistant team manager Nerys Hughes said: “With adoption, we’re mainly looking at babies up to around the age of six or seven.

“The children we find adoptive homes for have usually been through the court process. We would already have looked at whether there is a family member who they could stay with permanently.

“Adoption involves ending the current relationship with a birth family for the rest of their lives, although we do help to operate a letterbox system here for indirect contact.

“We offer a lot of support and training to adoptive families before the child is placed with them.”

There is a popular myth that councils have enough would-be adoptive parents coming forward but that is not the case.

In the past year, Swindon has placed between 20 and 25 children in adoptive families.