Liverpool is suffering from a shortage of foster carers, while the number of children being taken into care is ever increasing.
There is a massive national shortage of foster carers across the UK, which is now causing hardship in Liverpool.
Karen Walley, from Fostering Liverpool spoke to Merseynewlive about the difficulty of finding foster carers combined with an increase of children being taken into care.
Mrs Walley said: “In Liverpool the population of looked after children is increasing and we just can’t keep up with the demand.
“Coupled with the fact that a lot of our foster carers are of a certain age demographic as well, so we’re losing foster carers due to retirement.
“In 2016/17 there were 1121 looked after children in Liverpool and now in 2020/21 there are 1517, it is continuously increasing year on year”
While, the number of children coming into care is rising, Fostering Liverpool are doing lots of early intervention work to try and keep the numbers as low as possible.
Fostering Liverpool did experience a surge in enquiries into fostering during the Covid lockdown period.
Karen Walley said this was due to people feeling community spirited.
She said: “There were just so many variables during Covid that meant we couldn’t progress as many people through to become foster carers as we would have liked.
“It’s a responsibility right across the city, it has a knock on effect in terms of education and job opportunities”
“Our message is don’t rule yourself out (from fostering) because we’ll talk to anyone.”
If you have any interest in fostering please contact Fostering Liverpool here.
Featured image from Fostering Liverpool
