Fostering is an integral part of the care system across Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom. Thousands of children are fostered every year, but there are concerns within the field that we need more foster parents to keep up with demand. Organisations across Wales have teamed up to spread awareness and hopefully encourage more to foster.
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00:00 So today is the Welsh National Foster Walk. We run foster walks up and down the country
00:10 as part of Foster Care Fortnight, which is our annual campaign to raise an awareness
00:15 of the need for more foster carers for our children and young people who are looked after
00:19 in Wales.
00:20 So today, fabulous opportunity for foster carers, for fostering teams to get together
00:25 and celebrate Foster Care Fortnight together. We've got together with the Fostering Network
00:29 as 22 local authorities to come together and share our experiences, talk about some of
00:34 the amazing work that's going on across Wales, all while enjoying a fantastic walk through
00:38 the streets of Cardiff.
00:39 Yeah, so the hope from today is lots of things. It's raising awareness by bringing a group
00:44 of people together to talk about fostering, to share that foster carers are here amongst
00:49 us in society. They are people that are part of our everyday communities and they are incredibly
00:55 special for what they do and it's incredibly rewarding what they do.
00:59 And I've seen since, you know, in the 60 years that I've been living, that that same tin
01:05 can has been kicked down the road time and time again. And our children need to be seen,
01:09 heard and valued.
01:11 So Foster Wales is a collaboration between all 22 local authority fostering teams. So
01:15 we very much work together and our aim is to build better futures for local children.
01:20 So essentially we're all about recruiting more foster carers. We've got an active campaign
01:23 at the moment out now to recruit an additional 800 foster carers over the next three years.
01:29 And also improving outcomes for children, young people and our foster carers in our
01:32 local authorities as well.
01:34 Definitely. I mean, my lived experience for 14 years in children's homes and I understand
01:40 and relate very well to the importance of young children finding their love and the
01:44 security of a good home. And WOW's foster network are doing that. They're coming together
01:51 in order to try and find loving, secure homes for these young children.
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