“Fostering has enriched our lives, it might make it crazy at times - but what family isn’t?”

A fostering agency is calling for people who have been considering fostering to start their journey today, and help provide support and protection for children and young people in need, to tackle the rising need for more homes.

In England alone, 57,380 children were living with foster families as of March 31 2021, making up 71 per cent of the 80,850 children in care looked after away from home. There are around 45,370 foster families in England, and year on year more are needed to cope with the demand.

Parallel Parents - an independent fostering agency based in Stockport - are appealing for new prospective foster carers to start their journey, and start making a difference to the lives of young people and children in need. Established over 25 years ago, they are a family-owned and run agency, and believe that their child-focused approach makes them really stand out from other agencies. They have proudly achieved the highest rating, ‘Outstanding’, from Ofsted in their last four inspections, the most recent of which took place in November 2021.

One family who started their journey with Parallel Parents over eight years ago was Jo and her partner John. Hailing from Greater Manchester, they entered a new chapter of their lives when they decided to take the plunge and apply to be foster carers. Fostering was something that they’d always considered, but held off due to wanting to raise their own children first, in case it was disruptive to their upbringing.

“It was something we talked about for a long, long time but I never felt that my own children were old enough. I wanted to be a mum to them and just them first,” she said.

“We started fostering when they were 18 and 21 but we had talked about it for years before that. It