With a country wide shortage of foster carers, is now the time to make a new Year’s Resolution for 2023 that won’t only change your life, but will change the life of a child too?
With over 70,000 children in care in England, Diagrama a not-for-profit fostering agency is asking people to consider making an exceptionally thoughtful New Year’s resolution to pledge to take the first steps towards a rewarding career in foster care.
Kate Patel, Head of Fostering and Adoption at Diagrama, said “Fostering is an opportunity to change a life. If you do it, you offer safety and security to a young person who perhaps has never known those things. But it’s not just that – foster carers also bring fun and guidance into the lives of the children in their care. It’s a tremendous task to take on. I’ve met so many people from a host of different backgrounds who make it look easy. It’s an amazing gift to be able to give.”
Diagrama which places children with foster carers in South London, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey recently asked some of its foster carers what they most valued about fostering with Diagrama?
Beth Earnshaw, who is single, works full time and lives with her parents said, “Diagrama was willing to accept me as a potential foster carer even though my situation was unusual and they give me all the support I need to make it work. Fostering is both challenging and rewarding but the boy currently in my care, makes it so enjoyable as he is so funny. I love being around children, not only at work as a teaching assistant, but at home too and seeing him feeling safe and secure is the most wonderful gift any foster carer could ask for.”
With Diagrama being small enough to offer a personalised fostering experience while benefitting from the expertise and security that comes with being part of the larger Diagrama charitable foundation foster carer Katie Pillay said that she valued, “The generous support of the management and the social workers” and Chris Kimmance, who fosters with his wife Nic said, “Nic and I chose to foster with Diagrama so that we could make a difference. Inviting another child into your home and allowing them to find some stability, come alive and begin to really thrive is the best family decision we have made, and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.”
Kate Patel, Head of Fostering and Adoption at Diagrama, continued “It’s more challenging than it has ever been to find foster carers, especially now with the cost-of-living crisis making it very tough for everyone. Fostering isn’t going to make carers millions of pounds but foster carers primary motivator isn’t the money. It’s a 365 day a year job and there isn’t a limitless supply of people who can do it well. The best foster carers are absolutely incredible people. The role goes above and beyond normal parenting and we want to work with extra special people and it important to remember that you don’t have to be a parent to be a foster parent and you can be single or married, of any faith or ethnicity or age.”
If you decide your New Year’s Resolution will be to become a foster carer please take the first step by talking to the Diagrama team on 0800 802 1910, contacting them be emailing fostering@diagrama.org or visiting www.diagramafostering.org.uk
Note to Editors
With 70,000 children in care in England and circa 13 per cent of the foster carer workforce retiring or leaving every year, it is estimated that fostering services across the UK need to recruit a further 9,300 foster families in the next 12 months alone. There is a particular need for foster carers to look after teenagers and sibling groups.
Statistics source –
www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/advice-information/all-about-fostering/recruitment-targets
About Diagrama Foundation Fostering
Diagrama Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit fostering agency that provides a supportive environment for “looked after” children across South London, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.
The Diagrama fostering agency is small enough to offer a personalised fostering experience while benefitting from the expertise and security that comes with being part of the larger Diagrama charitable foundation.
Diagrama foster carers are rewarded with a generous benefits package, 24/7 support, additional payments, holiday cover and a free training and appraisal programme to develop new skills.
Diagrama works with many local authorities and gives their carers access to a wide and varied range of children in need of care.
Diagrama Fostering is part of Diagrama Foundation
About Diagrama Foundation
Diagrama Foundation is a Kent based charity that supports vulnerable children, young people, and adults to live their best life.
Diagrama has a Supported Living Service across Bromley, three homes for adults with learning disabilities in Orpington, a ten-bed care home for adults with learning disabilities in West Sussex a fifty-bed care home for the elderly with nursing and dementia needs in Essex, and a fostering and adoption service in the southeast.
- The Supported Living Service, cares for 35 adults with learning disabilities, in nine homes across Bromley helping them to develop skills and confidence to live in their own house either on their own or with others.
- At Cabrini House in Orpington the charity promotes the development of core skills for 23 adults with learning disabilities so that they can lead independent lives integrated within their community.
- The team at their nursing and dementia care home Edensor in Clacton on Sea, support their vulnerable residents to live life to the full.
- Diagrama’s adoption and fostering service cares for children in South London, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.
Many vulnerable children and adults don’t get the support they need to develop their true potential, but the Diagrama team know that when someone has time and belief invested in them, they come alive, because that investment has made them feel valued and worthy.
