Barnardos' sixth annual Fostering & Adoption Week begins on Monday.

The children’s charity will be campaigning on the urgent need for more foster carers across the UK, in particular the recruitment target of 575 more carers across Swindon and the south west.

The numbers of children in care have risen for the seventh year in a row with around 90,000 children currently in care across the UK.

A spokesman for the charity said: “Finding loving and secure homes for these children must be an absolute priority.

“Every child has the right to a stable and happy childhood. Without a suitable foster family these children miss out on the care and stability they so desperately need.

“As a fostering agency, Barnardo’s strives to recruit foster carers for the children who are deemed ‘harder to place’ due to their age, being part of a sibling group, their ethnicity or a disability.

Being a foster carer offers the opportunity to create strong and positive memories and foundations for the most vulnerable children in our society.”

Barnardo’s would like to hear from anyone who is interested in becoming a foster carer.
Contact the charity at barnardos.org.uk/swfosteringadoption.