In November alone, local authorities referred 1,400 children to just one hub for a fostering agency here in Kent .
Tessa Delaunay-Martin reports.
Tessa Delaunay-Martin reports.
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00:00Here in Kent someone on the front line of the fostering crisis is Florence Sutherland, founder of Anchor Foster Care based here in Medway.
00:06She founded the agency over 20 years ago joining as she tells us Kent's long-standing tradition of providing a place of safety for children in need.
00:14Families were taking in other children keeping themselves during the war time.
00:20So there's a sense in which Kent as a county and the Kentish people have always been generous and they've always taken children in their homes.
00:29But something has changed and we are beginning to see a shortage of foster carers.
00:38Anchor Foster Care's Kent Hub received around 1,400 referrals in November 2024 from local authorities across the South.
00:45But on average Anchor are only able to place one or two children per month with foster families.
00:50A recent report from children's charity Bernardos points to a number of reasons for the shortfall.
00:54The cost of living crisis, biological children staying at home for longer and not enough younger people replacing retiring carers.
01:00There is a generation that used to do that a long time and there was that culture of hospitality and things like that.
01:11And I think that generation has either passed on or has retired.
01:18One of those carers is Sandra who is now retired after more than a decade as a foster carer.
01:23She told us what drew her to the role and how it's enriched her life.
01:27My daughter decided that she wanted to be a foster carer and I wanted to assist her.
01:32We were very, very fortunate because after her training she was offered three siblings and we were so thrilled.
01:41But she already had two of her own so that was five children overnight.
01:46So I took early retirement and I became a foster carer myself.
01:50So I became a foster mother and a foster grandmother all at the same time.
01:54Without more eligible applicants coming forward, Florence is concerned about the impact of the shortfall.
01:59The consequences for the shortage of foster carers is huge.
02:04The most disheartening thing is what is going to happen to those children.
02:11What are we as a nation doing about it?
02:17For those considering becoming a foster carer but unsure if they meet the criteria, Florence had this advice to give.
02:22Anyone can become a foster carer.
02:25What you don't want to do is to rule yourself out before you have even talked to somebody.
02:33Inquire. You might just be surprised.