'If it just brings in one family, it could change one child's life forever'

OVER 40 ‘LIFE-SAVING’ BANNERS PUT UP ALONG COUNTY ROADS

- BY LAUREN MONAGHAN

Cllr Rory Green hanging up one of the new banners in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Right, Councillor Rory Green, cabinet member for children and families, top, and Matt Wesson, head of fostering at Nottinghamshire County Council

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE County Council is targeting more than 40 lampposts across the county in a campaign effort to boost its number of foster care families.

The authority says it is ‘bucking the national trend’ after seeing an increase in fostering families joining its service in 2025/26 - the first increase seen since the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the last financial year, the council saw an overall ‘net gain’ of six fostering families in the service, where it had 23 de-registrations from the service but had 29 families join.

This is a marked improvement on the year before - a 38 per cent reduction in de-registrations - where there were 32 de-registrations but only 25 new households signing up in 2024/25, meaning for that year there was a ‘net loss’.

Foster carers and families leave the service due to retirement, being granted special guardianship orders or young people turning 18 and no longer being considered a ‘looked-after’ child.

Now, the authority wants to continue its upward trend of more foster families joining the service than leaving, investing £6,000 to display 41 banners across Nottinghamshire lampposts to promote the vocation.