Around 7 out of 10 looked after children have a special educational needs compared with almost two in 10 of all children. That is why this Foster Care Fortnight many fostering agencies are asking people with the skills and willingness to support a child with special educational needs to consider becoming a foster carer.

It is very essential when a child goes to foster care is correctly matched with a suitable foster family, so having a range of families with diverse experience and ability is becoming ever more important. Without this, relationships can become tense causing placements to break down, meaning children are transfer and that they suffer even more disruption to their often already shocking lives. A well coordinate with fostering placement can see a child live and thrive with one foster carer over many years.

One of the main challenge in recruitment of foster carers is finding those who have the skills to specialize in fostering children with ever more complicated needs. Those with a background in this area are key to making sure that our most vulnerable children have a home where they can grow with people who are ambitious for them. A wider pool of foster carers who have the right skills and qualities would make it more likely that the right homes can be found for children first time, giving them a better chance of a happy childhood and a successful future.

Many foster carers who look after children and young people with special educational needs already had a background of working in this field. For example Bernadette, a foster carer for almost a decade was the additional needs coordinator at a large college: ‘I worked with many of young people with special needs who were fostered and who didn’t have best placements or were moving out and it made me think I could become a foster carer.”