Local foster carers were joined by their MP and the leader of the council to launch a recruitment campaign aimed at promoting fostering in Brent.

The ‘How to be a Brent Foster Carer’ campaign highlights the criteria of fostering and the impact it has on children and young people who need foster care as well as highlighting the good work carers do.

Ms Butler was joined for the launch event at Brent Civic Centre last Monday by Cllr Muhammed Butt as well as Patrice Thomas MBE, a foster carer for 31 years.

The council has previously benefitted from having foster carers from diverse backgrounds as this ensures almost every child can be well matched on an ethnic, cultural and religious basis but the need remains for even more to come forward.

“In Brent we have so many foster parents working tirelessly and recieve little, if any, praise,” said Ms Butler after the event.

“These parents are shaping the futures of Brent’s future generations.

“This event gave us the opportunity to sing those praises for those fmailies and promote the services on offer for people in Brent considering becoming foster parents.

“Some issues were also raised in terms of increased benefits for foster carers and I hope that Brent will be competitive. Although foster carers do this for the love and not the money, we have to ensure that we do not lose our foster carers to other boroughs.”

For anyone wanting to find out more about fostering please visit www.brent.gov.uk/fostering or call 020 8937 4538.