Caring nature

For anyone brought up by loving, supportive parents, it is almost impossible to imagine that there are children of many ages who are yet to experience a caring home life.

Child neglect and child poverty seem like something we should have left behind in the Dickensian era, yet recent figures showing a record number of children being taken into care paint a different picture.

Between April 2011 and January this year, 8,403 new applications to protect youngsters from child abuse were made to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.

This figure is 12.4% higher when compared with the same period in the previous financial year, and if numbers climb at a similar rate until April, the total will reach 10,000.

The rise highlights the increasing need for more foster carers, both locally and nationally.

On the opposite page Nottinghamshire foster carer Laura Redfern explains how she became involved and describes the benefits and rewards.

People like Laura are invaluable in their willingness to take on other people’s children and reach out to them in their time of need.

Many will have suffered mental or physical abuse and we should be grateful that Laura and others like her feel they can take on such a challenging task, and help those children experience something near to normality.

It is worth remembering that as our lives in this country become increasingly driven by technology, and relentless marketing strategies brainwash children into wanting things they don’t need, too many young people are left very much without — without that feeling they are loved.