Campaigners from Stockport visited Downing Street this October to help promote fostering.

Foster carers and representatives appeared at Number 10 to launch a new national campaign encouraging more people to consider opening their homes to children who need them.

The new campaign aims to redress the decline in the number of foster carers, partly by reminding people that fostering is more accessible than they might think.

Single people, renters same-sex couples and working parents can all become foster carers, contrary to some misconceptions.

Stockport Council said it 'urgently' needs new foster carers, and nationally the picture is similar; the number of approved foster carers has fallen by 12 percent since 2019, and England needs around 3,000 new foster carers every year just to replace those leaving the system.

In attendance at the Downing Street launch event on 13 October were foster carers James and Amy - a husband and wife - and Lianne, a single foster parent.

James said: "We started fostering three years ago because we felt we had more to give and it's given us a real sense of family. We have a young birth son, a baby on the way and we foster two teenage girls and absolutely love our fun, busy family life.

"I think people can rule themselves out of fostering because they don't think they have what's needed but they should give themselves more credit. If you're thinking about it then you can do this, you can be a foster carer and make a difference to someone's life."

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Lianne is a single carer who became a foster carer after being made redundant from her job working in retail. Lianne fosters an 11-year old boy.

"There are so many children that need someone to love and care for them, and I wanted to help a child who deserved that loving family home", she said.

"Families come in all different shapes and sizes, and fostering gave me the chance to create a loving family for a child who needed it.

"As well as my foster son, I also used to foster a toddler who I'm now supporting back with his birth mum. We are all still in regular contact and it's amazing to see how well Mum is now doing, and to watch them thrive as a family."

Stockport Council's cabinet member for children, families and education, Cllr Colin MacAlister, said: "Our foster carers do an incredible job giving children and young people the safe, loving homes they deserve.

"It was fantastic to see Stockport carers sharing their experiences nationally, but we urgently need more people locally to consider whether fostering could be for them. Fostering is more flexible than you think - there are lots of ways to foster and make a real difference to a child's life."

You can find more information about fostering in Stockport at www.fosterforgm.com/stockport or by calling 0300 303 0321.