A HEREFORDSHIRE foster agency has made a plea to get more people in the county fostering, after the number of daily referrals has risen to 40 a day.

Shaun Burnett, managing director at Mulberry Foster Care, based in Ross-on-Wye, said there has been an influx of referrals, bought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We get between 30 to 40 referrals a day for children needing foster homes,” he said.

"The stress of the pandemic has hit a lot of families and caused them to tip over the edge.

"Currently the number of children far outweigh the number of foster carers we have.”

New research compiled by the County Council Network, a group which represents local authorities across England, the number of children in care in the country could reach almost 100,000 by 2025, marking a 36 per cent rise in the last decade.

This rise led to Mulberry launching their New Year’s Wish campaign for 2022, in which they aim to recruit as many foster carers as they can in the county.

Mr Burnett said that the quality they look for most of all in potential foster carers is passion.

He said: “It’s passion that will get people through. Passion and bags full of patience.”

Andrew Robinson, director, said when looking for foster families they look for homes that will be secure and stable for the children.

He said that Mulberry as an agency provides good quality training for carers and that it is there duty as an agency to support them as best as they can.

Helen Beeby, a foster carer from Hereford, spoke of her experience of getting into fostering.

“We were in the services and at the time we didn't think it was right. When we settled down in our own home we approached Mulberry,” she said.

She said the selection process was very rigorous and not what she had expected.

“It took about five months. Goes back to the day you were born. It was eye-opening. They need to make sure the foster homes are safe for the children.

“You have to be reliable to become a foster carer and very flexible.

“A lot of these children have some complicated issues. You can never really understand what they’ve been through.”