Bake Off event helps to highlight the importance of foster families

It coincided with Foster Care Fortnight which saw event staking place to help highlight the situation.

According to The Fostering Network, the UK’s leading fostering charity which runs Foster Care Fortnight, over 7,000 more people with the right skills and experience are needed to offer loving, stable and secure homes to children and young people across the UK.

This year fostering agencies need to recruit another 830 new foster carers in south-east England.

Anchor Foster Care staff celebrated Foster Care Fortnight this year with a Foster Bake Off at Stade Kitchens in Hastings.

Foster carers rolled up their sleeves and prepared to ‘ready, steady, bake’ with the theme of ‘celebration cakes’.

The overall winner was Linda Burgess with her creative hedgehog birthday cake. The competition was judged by the Hastings RNLI team and the prizes were donated by local businesses in Hastings.

Darren Hall, Anchor Supervising Social Worker for the East Sussex region, said: “In East Sussex there is a need for people who can care for children of all ages, especially for children and teenagers with complex needs and challenging behaviour, and parent and baby placements.

“Prospective foster carers need a range of skills and qualities, including patience, the ability to listen, being a team player, a sense of humour and much more besides.

“When a child has suffered neglect, abuse, trauma and loss, rather than love and care during their early years, they often develop attachment difficulties.

“We provide our carers with extensive training in all areas of therapeutic parenting and provide highly enhanced support to provide them with the essential skills for this type of fostering.”

Anchor foster carers receive free training and 24/7 support and an allowance to cover the cost of looking after the children in their care. If you have a spare room and think you could offer the support and care that a fostered child needs call on 01634 283140 or visit www.anchorfostercare.co.uk”.

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