Wiltshire fostering service aiming to boost provision for vulnerable young people
177 households in Wiltshire currently support children as foster carers
Wiltshire's foster carer team is pushing for more families to open up their homes to children needing sanctuary.
Over this fortnight, the team are hoping to add to the 177 households already supporting vulnerable young people.
The team is visiting towns across the county to share information and dispel myths about being a foster carer including Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury and at Castle Coombe's Steam Rally on Saturday (17th May).
Rachel Pearce from the Fostering Service says there's an increased demand for fostering provision.
She told us they're hoping to take the number of households supporting young people beyond 200.
"In the coming year, we're looking to recruit an extra 30 households, that can provide emergency fostering for us that can provide a home for sibling groups because we have more sibling groups coming in and specialist care such as parent and child fostering," she said.
The focus is on "the power of relationships", as social workers aim to minimise the trauma of care for young people.
Rachel said: "We want local children to have local homes so that they can maintain their relationships, that they can maintain school places and that the trauma is reduced slightly in that they can still know what's familiar to them."
She added: "We want to be able to match children to households and to areas because the more we have, the more we're able to do that and the more we can positively say that a child can be matched for longer term rather than just for now."
She told us it is "a challenge" to find homes that can provide a home for siblings, as the team aims to keep children from the same family together.
Rachel said relationships are the key to any positive support.
She insists that there aren't as many barriers to fostering as people may think, with work commitments or having children of our own all able to be navigated.
Rachel told us people simply need a "big heart, be willing to learn and have patience".
The Council offers carers pay starting at £410 per week, rising to £760 per week.
More information can be found here.