16th May, 2025
Foster Care Fortnight is upon us once again, The Fostering Networks annual campaign on raising awareness and the profile of fostering. This year’s theme is the power of relationships. We have to admit, it’s a good one. Powerful relationships are the lynch pin of successful fostering.
In honour of Foster Care Fortnight, let’s take a dive into how the power of relationships can help us build brighter futures for vulnerable young people.
From our experience it really does take a village to raise a child, not family specifically but a range of support from parents, grandparents, doctors, teachers and even the next door neighbour. This village is even more crucial in foster care and those sturdy foundations must come from within the organisation.
At Capstone, the child has a whole team wrapped around them from their fostering family, a dedicated supervising social worker, children’s champions, as team of therapists as well as their local authority social worker, and educators all working in harmony towards creating the best outcomes for them.
We’re proud of our strong infrastructure, in particular our MATTS offering. This came about when we noticed that children and young people who’d experienced trauma were only getting the therapeutic support they needed when they were at crisis point. So, we created MATTS, an in-house therapy service that gives support at the point of need.
It’s been a game changer! It’s strengthened and nurtured understanding not only between child and fostering family, but also established more trust and support between us and our foster carers.
Of course, fostering can feel lonely at times. After all, it’s our fostering families who are with their children day in day out 24/7. No matter how much support we provide as an organisation there are somethings we’ll never truly understand, which is why we’ll always champion the power of peer-to-peer relationships. We provide local support groups to all of our foster carers and in feedback surveys these are consistently rated as the most valued form of support. As one of our own foster carers, Ben, put it, they let you know that you’re not on your own. That someone else has very likely been through what you’re going through and has words of advice and encouragement coming from a place of experience. Dan and his wife still attend support groups over ten years into their careers as foster carers, having built powerful relationships with other foster carers and also to pay forward the support they received when they were starting out to new foster carers in turn.
When it comes to fostering, communication is obviously key. One of the benefits of fostering with an independent organisation is our investment in our team. Every fostering family has a dedicated supervising social worker with a low case load so they can build real relationships with their families and always be on hand with a friendly ear or to pop in for a cuppa if they’re needed.
Foster care can be transformational for vulnerable young people. Everyone has a role to play, and it’s when these roles are singing in harmony that the effects can be truly profound.
If you’ve got any questions or would like to find out more about fostering with Capstone, fill out the form below.
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Start the conversation today. Our team of friendly advisors are on hand to answer any foster care questions you may have. We can offer you honest and practical advice that can help you decide if becoming a foster carer is the right path for you.
