"I think there should be more people like my mum, who foster, because she is kind, caring and optimistic. She keeps you up when you're feeling down. She is very loyal. I know she would do anything for me." Michael, aged 12.
This is a book about what it really means to foster. This collection of first person accounts tells the stories of "complex" forms of foster care and what it is like to foster children and young people who have experienced loss, trauma, abuse, or just a very difficult start in life. Rarely do foster carers tell their side of the story and here we meet some of these ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
In twelve compelling chapters, foster carers talk about living with children who come with a range of difficulties including sexual abuse, extreme neglect, HIV, serious disability, unaccompanied asylum seeking, learning difficulties, foetal alcohol syndrome or have been "institutionalised". Almost without exception, the children and young people have serious behaviour problems.
The foster carers talk of the strategies they have used - and the inevitable problems, dilemmas, challenges and disappointments they have experienced. But their stories also reveal the successes, triumphs and rewards that fostering can offer and the skills, dedication and love they have brought to the task of caring for children shines through.
This is the first such collection in which the experiences of carers are seen through their eyes. Their stories reveal a wealth of experience which makes inspiring reading and will be of interest to social workers and fostering agencies wanting to learn how to support and retain, not just recruit, foster carers for complex cases. The practical skills demonstrated in these case studies will be of interest to carers and others considering parenting children with complex needs.
Henrietta Bond is a freelance journalist and media consultant, specialising in children and family issues. Formerly BAAF's press officer, she has worked with numerous other children and young people's organisations including Fostering Network, Barnardo's, Action for Children, The Who Cares? Trust, TalkAdoption, A National Voice, and with several local authorities. She has written for Guardian Society, Community Care, Care and Health, Children Now and Young People Now.
She is also the author of Fostering a Child and the latest revision of the Advice Note Fostering: Some questions answered for BAAF.
