Tag: looked after children

Children in care are STARS for the night

Children in care from across Leeds have been treated like stars for the night at a prom style awards ceremony. The STARS awards for Looked After Children have been organised by Leeds City Council to celebrate and recognise the many achievements of children and young people in care. In order to make sure all children…
Read more

An adoption and fostering panel chair’s story

Fostering and adoption services are an integral part of Leeds City Council’s work with children and young people. Over the coming months we will be hearing from a range of people working with, and as part of, our fostering and adoption services, telling the stories of the work we do for the city’s children and…
Read more

Could you be a foster carer like Claire?

Being a Leeds City Council foster carer can be an incredibly rewarding experience, with carers supporting a young person during the most important years of their life. We are always looking for more people to help improve the lives of our city’s looked after young people, you can find out more about the process by getting…
Read more

A beginner’s guide to fostering

Fostering can be an incredibly rewarding experience for foster carers as they help and support a young person during the most important years of their life.  We currently have around 600 foster carers and are looking for more people to help improve the lives of our cities young people by getting in contact with our fostering team.…
Read more

Marching on together – an independent visitor’s story

The child friendly Leeds awards are your chance to nominate the places and people making Leeds a great place to grow up in, as well as being a platform for young people and adults looking after young people around Leeds to tell their stories from around the city.   Today we hear from Dene, who volunteers as part…
Read more

stock photo

“I’m now a world expert on Thomas the Tank Engine – but I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

My journey as a single adopter started over 2 years ago. It was a massive decision to apply to adopt, after looking into all of the other options. I did lots of background reading, and spoke to friends who had already adopted to get as much information as I could, before I applied. I was…
Read more

stock photo

‘Going to panel’ – not as scary as it sounds!

Today we hear from Heather, who manages the adoption and fostering panel service at Leeds City Council. The panels are the independent groups of people who prospective adoptive parents and foster carers meet near the end of their assessment process. We started by asking her how she got into managing the service. “I’ve worked for…
Read more

stock photo

Adopting siblings – it is truly fantastic!

“Adopting a child is such an exciting and nerve racking experience in equal measure, but adopting siblings is a really rewarding thing to do because the children have such a special connection – they are forever linked by their shared life story. “We have 3 fantastic, amazing adopted children – siblings, aged 7, 6 and…
Read more

Adoption – “meeting your child is just indescribable”

A few weeks ago, one of our adopters, Carrie, was interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds by Liz Green on the morning show. If you missed it, here is what they talked about. Liz – In Yorkshire, we’ve got more children available for adoption than ever before. Figures say there are 500 youngsters wanting to find new homes. Carrie…
Read more

“A child is a whole person therefore every one of us involved have a lifetime responsibility to them.”

Today we hear a thought-provoking piece from Jill, one of our adoption panel members, who has first hand experience of having to give up her child, many years ago. We hope this will make you think, and would welcome comments, below. “I am a birth mother who gave up my son for adoption in 1967 at a…
Read more

An independent visitor – whats that? Well, me now actually!

  It started with the director of children’s services for Leeds city council saying in a meeting that only 10% of looked after children had an independent visitor.  I had no idea what one of those was!   So one day I Googled it and discovered that there was a Leeds City Council scheme. An…
Read more