FOSTER Care Associates has stepped up its drive for new foster carers in Worcestershire in a bid to prevent children being separated from their siblings.

The call follows the publishing of Action For Children’s findings, which revealed that more than 3,000 children in the UK have been separated from their brothers and sisters when being placed with families.

The organisation, which marks its 20th anniversary of providing care and support to children and young people this year, is now appealing for potential carers with the time, inclination and space to care for more than one child at a time to consider the move into fostering.

David Oldham, CEO of Foster Care Associates, said: “Since it was established 20 years ago, FCA has placed 30,000 children, and we’re currently in the middle of a recruitment drive to identify more potential carers to help us continue to place children and young people into caring and nurturing families.

“Wherever possible, we try to keep siblings together – the emotional impact that being separated from one another can have, combined with the change in environment, is one that we endeavour to avoid.

“Fostering is an incredibly rewarding experience, and there are many factors that make up an ideal candidate – everything from being adaptable, resilient and nurturing to being a good listener and having a flexible response to a young person’s needs.

“Many of our prospective carers are parents whose children have left home, leaving them with the space and inclination to provide the care required to children and young people. We’d really like to talk to those with the capacity to support two and three children to minimise emotional distress to them,” he said.

Action For Children’s Freedom of Information request revealed that a third of UK children – 3,582 from 11,082 in total – had been separated from their siblings between April 2013 and March 2014.

Foster Care Associates operates 50 offices across the UK, servicing every region in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and has 20 years’ experience of offering high quality and stable fostering placements.

For more information on becoming a foster carer with the FCA, call 0800 023 4561 or visit thefca.co.uk