22 May 2020 ‘It’s important to step into someone else’s shoes, understand about the child’s background‘ By Catherine Lockett Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Daisy, who is nearly 19 years old, and, meeting her carers. She came to live with Angie and Lynn when she was 8 years old and remains within their family today under a Staying Put arrangement.
18 May 2020 'Fostering is life changing, becomes your life, but I am stubborn, I stick with things and won’t give up' By Catherine Lockett Meet Michelle, who has fostered for 10 years. She began fostering when her son was 14 years old, as a single carer.
12 May 2020 A journey into foster care that transformed life for a child By a foster carer I have worked with and cared for young people with complex disabilities for over twenty years. I may be biased but welcoming a young person into your home is hugely rewarding, especially when you see the positive impact you are having on their life. It is an absolute pleasure for my husband Mark and I to foster care. We took a break from fostering a few years ago to recharge our batteries and then went back to Progress with a renewed optimism to help a child. Progress informed us about Fariha, and we really wanted to care for her.
12 May 2020 Poem written by an 11yr old young person By My life was no fun My fears would make me run. Until out of the blue I met you.   I became a foster child not once but twice When I hurt myself you gave me ice. You helped me learn Everything I get I earn.  
12 May 2020 'Seeing them back home, sending us pictures of what they are doing, makes us proud' By Catherine Lockett Meet the Spillane family, Kate and Kieron and their lovely fostering family Jessica aged 17 yrs., Anaya, 13yrs, Noah 8yrs and Pippa who is 6 yrs. old. Some would be curious of why Kate and Kieron would find the time or energy to foster when they have such a busy household, but talking to this family through facetime and seeing their joy when they talk of fostering said it all.
17 May 2016 It’s keeping carers going that’s the real challenge By Andrew Fox We don’t have enough foster carers for all of our children and young people to enjoy family life. And I know that we’ll always struggle to find people who can take on this role – because it’s not something that just anyone can do. I believe that not everyone has the right skills, attitude or the circumstances to be in a position to do it. So for local authorities and agencies to find and train the right people will always be difficult. But still recruitment is the easy part. It’s keeping carers going that’s the real challenge.
16 May 2016 It was at this point I realised that my foster family weren't against me, but in fact they only had my best interests in mind By Liam At the age of five I was taken into care, due to the fact my mother couldn't look after me and my elder brother. We were told that we were going to be staying with someone else for a week, and then we would be taken back home when everything had been sorted. Weeks went by, which turned into months, which turned into a year. By the end of the first month, my brother and I were told that we weren't going to be able to go home as it was in our best interests to be looked after by one of their foster carers. To say we were distraught would be an understatement.
9 Jun 2015 Invest in the best! Looking after foster carers and learning from good practice By Andrea Warman The Fostering Network report which launched Fostercare Fortnight, highlighted how too many teenagers in care experience a series of placement breakdowns as their foster carers struggle to cope. It called for more targeted recruitment, and more support for carers when things are going wrong. Like many others, my work with carers over a number of years means I’m not surprised at all by the report’s findings, and I wouldn’t disagree with those recommendations – but I don’t think they go far enough.
8 Jun 2015 We recently cared for adult parents and their baby who were with us for just over three months By Trish and Duane Bryant Fostering was something we always wanted to do after our own children had grown up and moved on. We did our research and shortlisted three foster care providers, finally deciding on Pathway Care. We weren’t sure if we’d be accepted as foster carers at first as we’ve never done anything like that before. But Pathway Care was very reassuring and keen to get us up to speed which is exactly what we wanted.
2 Jun 2015 To see this group of brothers and sisters all having such a lovely time together, laughing and having fun was truly a wow moment By Cherrie McConnachie I’ve wanted to foster ever since I was at school. My best friend was in foster care and had a bad experience, so I always thought that this would be a way for me to make a positive difference. Paul and I considered fostering very carefully as we wanted to make sure our own children were fully comfortable with our wish to become foster carers and ready to become a foster family at an age where they could understand what was happening. We also wanted to make sure our wider family group was fully supportive, which they are.

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