Fostering in Staffordshire

Fostering Staffordshire

We are happy to share that, as a West Midlands based fostering service (Birmingham), we are an approved Foster Carer provider for Staffordshire County Council (as well as for all local surrounding Local Authorities) which means that when children and young people from the Staffordshire area in need of Foster homes, Staffordshire Childrens Services will forward us a referral to see what suitable homes we have for that child within the area. As such we work with them closely to ensure we recruit and train the most suitable and well-matched Foster Carers possible.

To give you an idea of the scope of fostering, specific to Staffordshire, please see below localised information that you may find helpful.

How many children are in care in Staffordshire?

It was reported by Staffordshire County Council that in March 2022 that there were 1303 looked after children and young people from within the local authority area, of which the vast majority of these (71%) were placed in foster homes. This number of looked after children has risen steadily over the years as you can see from the information below:

Why are the children coming into care

The reasons that children and young people are entering care in Staffordshire is monitored by the Local Authority. You will see from the details below, that  overwhelmingly over the last few years this due to abuse and neglect.

During your assessment and training to become a Foster Carer we will provide you training to understand what impact this may have had on the children that come into your care, their development, their understanding of boundaries or their ability to trust adults to keep them safe.

About the Children that Come into Care

Children come into care every day of all ages, however we do find that there are certain age groups that have higher numbers, for example; In March 2022 children and young people aged 10-15 years account for the majority of looked after children (39%)

When you hear us talking about matching, one of the areas that we will always try to match where possible is the ethnic profile of children and their Foster Carers. To give you an idea how this is reflected in Staffordshire please see the below information as reported by Childrens Services.  This is important information to know as in order to be able to match effectively, there needs to be a foster carer base that reflects the demographics of the city’s children and young people.

White children and young people make up 88% of the care population fostered population in Staffordshire, followed by Mixed Heritage children (7%), Black/Black British children and children of other ethnic origins (2% each) and Asian/Asian British children (1%) (maybe we could add a chat for this or one of those rolling number bars)

Fostered children ethnic profiles

What Foster carers are needed in Staffordshire?

What Foster Carers are needed in Solihull
There is a real need at the moment to increase the number of foster home across Staffordshire. As a whole, we need to recruit committed carers across the board for children of all ages, however, there is a clear and evidenced need to recruit additional Carers that are able to offer homes to children aged 10-15 as this is the age category that has the highest number of all fostered children.

We are also dedicated to keeping siblings together, where appropriate, and as such are in need of homes that are able to consider fostering more than one child.
There is also an increasing demand for mother and baby placements and children with complex medical needs and/or life limiting conditions.

Full Training and support is provided to our Carers to ensure that they are able to offer the types of placements they would like and are considered suitable for. Click here to find out more about what different types of foster care placements you could offer to children from in and around Staffordshire. Alternatively use the contact form below to get in touch with a member of our team