Fostering and Adoption in the National Spotlight
With a high-profile new BBC documentary with ‘EastEnders’ Joe Swash looking at the lives of teenagers in care and the widespread coverage of footballer Dele Alli’s recent interview in which he opens up about his traumatic childhood for the first time, fostering and adoption are in the national spotlight.
In Joe Swash: Teens In Care, Joe takes a hard look at the lives of young people in the care system, exploring the lives of several teenagers in care around the country. It’s clearly a very personal issue for Joe, whose own mum has been a foster carer for 15 years.
It’s an unflinching look at the care system, how siblings can be separated and why some teenagers are in residential care and how the system needs to change. Joe also talks to young adults who have left the care system or are about to, highlighting the challenges of moving into the adult world for young people who don’t have the support network that comes with a stable loving home.
Despite talking to policy makers and government ministers, it’s not a programme that offers up easy answers. It’s more a cry for help. Help from the government to change the system and help from anyone who can step forward and give a stable home to a young person and be that ‘safety net’ that too many children leaving residential care don’t feel they have.
At the same time, footballer Dele Alli has been talking about his childhood in an almost unprecedented way for a football player, about the abuse and exploitation he suffered before “I was adopted by an amazing family, I couldn’t have asked for better people to do what they’d done for me. If God created people, it was them.”
These stories are important because they are highlighting the fact that while there are many good caring people - from Joe’s mum to Dele’s adoptive parents - who have taken that step to give a child a second chance, the simple truth is we need more people to step forward, to be the difference, who are prepared for the challenge of offering a young person a second chance in life.
If you’re thinking about fostering or adoption, watch Joe Swash: Teens In Care here on catch up. It’s available for the next 11 months.
You can also read about Dele Alli’s remarkable interview here and watch the full interview with Gary Neville here
Click here to read more about fostering for Sandwell or call 0800 358 0899
Click here to find out more about adoption@heart or call 01902 55 3818
