Foster Care Fortnight is the UK’s biggest foster care awareness raising campaign, delivered by leading fostering charity, The Fostering Network. Established in 1997, the campaign showcases the commitment, passion and dedication of foster carers. It also supports fostering services to highlight the need for more foster carers. Thousands of new foster families are needed every year to care for children, with the greatest need being for foster carers for older children, sibling groups, disabled children and unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Running from now until Sunday 22 May, the theme this year is ‘fostering communities’ and we will use the campaign to shine a light on the many ways people across the fostering community support each other.  

During this period the recruitment team will be holding some drop in style events, including one at Newark Library on Thursday 12 May. As well as our recruitment events we’ll be sharing some brilliant campaign material on our Facebook page, so  please keep an eye out and share our posts so we can reach as many people as possible.

Please check out this new digital resource to help foster carers navigate relationships and sex education conversations. The guide conveys a ‘can do’ message from young people with care experience, and is steeped in practical tips and advice from foster carers. 

Developed by The Sex Education Forum and the Fostering Network, carers should find this a really useful and informative guide.

The Inspire and Achieve Foundation are now recruiting 16-25 year olds for the next set of Prince’s Trust Team Programme across the county. This  FREE 12-week personal development programme is designed to support the young people to  learn and gain a qualification, meet new people, build confidence and gain work experience. They will also have the chance to develop their interview and CV writing skills, as well as the opportunity to attend a fun packed residential! If you think your young person would be interested then please contact Jayne on 07932 649756  or email jaye.crew@inspireachieve.co.uk or to make a referral using the button below.

Are you new to fostering? Or are you an experienced foster carer? Have you heard about FLAG? 

FLAG offers all Nottinghamshire foster carers the opportunity to raise any issues, concerns and queries to senior social care managers. Your views ultimately can influence foster care practice and in addition, we are able to be consulted upon the development of new policies and procedures that directly affect foster carers across Nottinghamshire. 

At each meeting, service updates are provided by the Service Director Steve Edwards and Ty Yousaf Fostering & Placements Service Manager, with news shared on both local and national developments for foster carers and looked after children.

Often guest speakers attend too, assisting in ensuring that foster carers know of other support services in the area.

The committee members of FLAG are foster carers themselves and as such have first-hand experience of some of the difficulties foster carers can experience either when newly appointed or having been fostering for a long time. By attending FLAG and providing your views, you have a voice and a direct link to senior managers as a means of shaping services for the better. 

Rachel Cutts is currently the chairperson of FLAG - you can see her picture in this segment! Please contact Rachel should you require further information, or if you are interested in attending the next FLAG meeting: rachelcutts@btinternet.com

The next FLAG meeting will be on Monday 4 July from 7pm over Microsoft TEAMS. The link will be shared nearer the time but you can read the minutes from the previous meeting.

The search has begun for Nottinghamshire’s inspirational young people as the 4Uth Award nominations are now open!

The 4Uth Awards recognise the achievements of young people aged 11-19 (or up to 25 if disabled) from all seven districts of the county. Previous winners have often overcome major challenges in their lives, such as bereavement, trauma and illness, and have raised thousands for charity, cared for friends or relatives, and helped others.

Nominations are welcome from anyone, including friends, family, carers, schools, youth groups, or voluntary organisations.

Why not nominate a young person in your life who deserves some recognition?

The University of York’s Access and Outreach team is dedicated to supporting care experienced young people to achieve their full potential and has an extensive support package available at both the early stages of thinking about university and once they become students at the university.

We are in the process of developing a new programme aimed at foster carers and other key influencers of care experienced young people, called ‘Supporting the Supporters’. The programme aims to increase foster carers’ knowledge of higher education so they feel better able to support young people to make informed choices. It’s also a chance for us all to learn from the individual experiences of foster carers and to provide peer support and advice to each other. 

We are planning to run the course online so that foster carers from across England can take part. Sessions are likely to take place once per month for six months. There will be the option to take part in the morning (10.30-12 TBC) or in the evening (6.30-8 pm TBC). There will also be an optional visit to the University of York campus as part of the programme. The programme, including the visit, will be free for participants to take part in. 

Before we go ahead with setting dates and opening registration, we’d love to hear from as many foster carers as possible to gather your thoughts on the programme, including the suggested content and structure. We’d be very grateful if you could complete this short questionnaire to give us your feedback. Three respondents will be picked at random to win a £25 voucher. 

If you’d like to speak to us about the course, either to ask questions or provide your thoughts, please email Vanessa Conman at outreach-independent-student@york.ac.uk. Thank you!