To tackle the shortage currently being experienced nationally, Portsmouth City Council need to recruit additional foster carers to join our dedicated team in providing loving homes for the vulnerable children and young people in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas.
The council’s first drop-in foster carer recruitment event of 2022 will take place on Saturday 22 January from 10am-1pm at Portsmouth’s Holiday Inn Express, Farlington. The event will demonstrate the positive impact foster carers make to the lives of children in our city.
Cllr Suzy Horton, Deputy Group Leader and Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education at Portsmouth City Council, commented:
“We’re in need of additional foster carers, particularly those who may be able to provide a caring home for siblings so they’re able to remain together and teenagers to support them with reaching their potential.”
Cllr Horton, who will dropping in at the event, continued,
“This first face-to-face foster carer recruitment event of the new year provides those that have ever considered fostering with the opportunity to discover the rewards first-hand from our existing foster carers.”
Anyone aged 18+ with a spare bedroom could foster with Foster Portsmouth regardless of their age, gender, faith, ethnicity, sexuality, marital or work status, or whether they rent or own their own home.
Nina & Keith, who have fostered with Portsmouth City Council for five years, recently shared,
“We knew friends that fostered with Foster Portsmouth, so we looked at the website and went to a recruitment night. We could see how well foster carers are supported and the training sounded like everything we would need.”
Nina & Keith, who are from Denmead, Hampshire, continued,
“We currently have a 17-year-old girl who has been with us since she was 13 and a sibling group of three boys aged eight, ten and twelve, all now on long-term placements meaning the boys get to grow up with each other. Our teenager, once back in a school routine, went on to pass her GCSEs, is currently studying for her A Levels and BTEC, and has applied for university.”
They concluded,
“It’s amazing the difference you can make, not just to the children in your care but also the families and yourselves.”
The council welcomes all enquiries about fostering. This could be a short or long term placement for a child or siblings until they’re ready to live independently or be reunited with family, support for unaccompanied minors or children with a disability, supported lodgings to develop their independent living skills, a parent and baby placement, or respite care.
Foster carers receive excellent, local training and 24/7 support, including through our pioneering Mockingbird Family Model support network and mentoring scheme, and competitive fees and allowances.
For more information on our recruitment event on Saturday 22 January, please visit: www.foster.portsmouth.gov.uk/events. There’s no need to book, people can simply drop-in between 10am-1pm. Free parking and refreshments will be available.
For more information on fostering in general, please contact the fostering recruitment team on 023 9283 4071, visit www.foster.portsmouth.gov.uk or email fostering@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
