7:00am Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Barrie Hudson
SWINDON Town captain Gordon Greer will appear at a National Fostering Agency information evening at the County Ground tomorrow.
The agency, founded 14 years ago, is a private organisation that works with many councils, including Swindon’s, to find foster carers.
Last year 334 children needed foster care in Swindon, while across Wiltshire the figure was 500 and in England as a whole about 60,000.
Foster carers are thoroughly trained and provided with full financial support and access to expert advice and help at all times.
Town captain Gordon said: “Families are very important to me, and fostering children is something special.
“It allows many children who have had an unfortunate upbringing to be part of a family and to have the love and support around them when needed.”
A Swindon couple who heartily agree with that assessment are foster carers Christine and Jez Cavey, who are both 48.
Jez is a self-employed window fitter while Christine is a full-time mum. The couple have a teenaged boy and girl.
For the past five years, they have have been foster carers to about a dozen children – up to three at a time - ranging in age from babies to teenagers.
Christine said: “It’s hard work, but you can see what a differerence it makes in the lives of the children, and there is joy in feeling that they are happy.
“If anybody thinks they are going to go into fostering and have it easy all the time, they are going to find it’s not like that, but when you achieve something it feels extremely rewarding.“ The family’s experience in fostering began with answering a newspaper advert – Christine thinks it may have been in the Adver – placed by the agency.
She was then visited by Kim York, the National Fostering Agency’s supervising social worker for the area. The agency believes in assigning each foster family a single social worker rather than using a rota system.
Kim said: “The first visit to prospective foster carers is always very relaxed. They ask questions and we ask questions, and we also look to make sure the home is suitable - that there’s a spare room, for example.”
After that initial visit, there are usually up to 10 more, as well as a three day course spread over about two weeks.
If all goes well during this process, the candidates become fully-fledged foster carers.
Christine added: “We have looked after children not just from Swindon but from across Wiltshire and also from Bristol and Bath.”
Tomorrow’s gathering at the County Ground runs from 6pm to 8pm, and further information is available from the agency on 0845 200 4040 and at www.nfa.ws.
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