Banbury MP Sean Woodcock asks Chipping Norton and north Oxfordshire residents to look into fostering as a national campaign launches. 66% think they could.
Sean Woodcock, the Labour MP for Banbury, is asking anyone in his constituency who has ever thought about fostering a child to find out more, as the government launches its first national campaign to recruit foster carers in England.
The Banbury seat reaches well into West Oxfordshire. Chipping Norton, Charlbury and Finstock, and the Kingham, Rollright and Enstone ward all sit inside it, according to the ONS postcode directory, so the appeal covers the north of our patch. Witney itself is in the Witney constituency.
The campaign was launched this week, his office said, as part of the government’s aim of 10,000 more local authority and third-sector fostering places by 2029.
What the MP said
In a statement sent to Witney News, Mr Woodcock said:
“Foster carers provide something every child needs: safety, stability and the feeling of belonging. Here in Banbury and North Oxfordshire, local foster carers make an extraordinary difference to children’s lives every day.
“But we need more people to consider whether they could offer their home to a child who needs one. You do not have to assume fostering is not for you because you do not fit a particular picture of what a foster carer looks like. The first step is simply to ask and find out.
“Recruitment is only part of the answer. We also need to back existing carers, cut unnecessary bureaucracy and make sure children can build loving, lasting relationships, ideally close to the places and people they know.”
Why the government wants more carers
The number of approved foster carers in England has fallen by 12% since 2019, while the number of children needing care has gone up, the Department for Education said on 14 October. That is why it wants 10,000 new foster places by the end of this Parliament.
Its own polling found that 66% of people, two in three, believe they could be a good foster carer if practical barriers were removed. The department says too many adults are ruling themselves out before they find out more, and the campaign will aim at adults in their 30s and 40s who have never seriously considered it.
Where the money goes
The campaign follows the government’s Fostering Action Plan, launched in February and backed by £88 million over two years. The MP’s office says the plan brings together recruitment, stronger regional fostering hubs, more support for existing carers and a simpler approach to everyday decisions in family life.
The Department for Education adds that £12.4 million of that is for a fostering innovation fund, which will trial new kinds of fostering such as short-term respite care or fostering at weekends, to open it up to more people. Eleven programmes have been chosen, covering weekend foster carers, support for carers facing allegations, parent-and-child fostering, therapeutic training, more diversity among carers, and helping children move from residential homes into foster families.
Other changes include a new rulebook for foster carers on day-to-day decisions and digital tools to speed up recruitment. More than 70% of councils are now part of a regional fostering hub, the department says.
What it means for you
If you have wondered whether you could foster, the MP’s advice is to ask before ruling yourself out. In Oxfordshire, the county council runs the local authority fostering service; its fostering pages are the place to start an enquiry.
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