Plea for foster parents in Hartlepool amid North-East shortage

More than 5,000 children and young people in the region are currently in need of a stable foster placement or alternative home, a Hartlepool fostering agency has said.

Numbers have been rising since the pandemic, prompting an appeal for more people to consider fostering.

Sarah Richardson, registered manager at Hartlepool’s Changing Futures Fostering, has said that the North East is feeling the effects of a national crisis.

"There is more of a need than there has been in a long time,” Sarah said.

"To me, it’s quite stark that there’s 5,600 children in the North East who need stable foster placement or alternative home.”

She added: "We are in a national crisis and the North East is feeling that crisis. We receive hundreds of referrals month on month. Not just one or two, 10, 20. Hundreds. And we cannot meet that need.”

Making an impact

Mally and Deborah Priddy decided to take up fostering in 2011. Since then they have helped over 30 young people from the age of just seven months to 17 years and even adopted their daughter, now 13, through fostering.

Both Mally, 59, and Deborah, 58, had jobs at the start before becoming full-time foster carers eventually.

"There’s a lot of a good you can do when you’re fostering. It gives a home and support to a young person,” Mally said.

"The best part is seeing the positive change you can make.

"We’ve had teenagers come to us who have never ever set foot in a secondary school, but then within a year they have up to 90 per cent attendance.

"You can make that impact.

"You are showing them something that they might not have experienced before. You don’t come into care unless there’s a strong enough reason to be taken away.

"For us, it’s just showing them what a family is.”

The Hartlepool couple currently foster four children and Mally has encouraged other people to consider becoming foster carers.

"I think fostering has changed a lot over the years. It’s seen more as a profession now and you get that professional support,” he said.

"Sometimes people have myths, ‘you can’t do it if you’re single, you can’t do it if you’re same sex couple’. These are all myths and you can put all that to bed by talking to a carer.”

Extension of the family

Sarah has said there is a need for all types of foster parents and households.

"The difficulty that we’ve got is that the population of foster parents has decreased. So there is an increase in children and young people and less foster parents,” she explained.

Potential foster parents will first be put in touch with other foster carers at Changing Futures to find out what fostering is like. There is a range of support throughout, including an on-call service.

Sarah said fostering could be done flexibly and be an extension of the family.

She added: "We really do want people to come forward. We want to support them to become foster families.”

To find out more, contact Changing Futures on (01429) 891444 or email [email protected].