With more children entering the care system, demand for foster carers has never been greater.

There is currently a shortage of 10,000 foster carers throughout the UK, yet last year, an extra 3,700 children needed a foster family compared with 2009.

During Foster Care Fortnight, running from now until May 29, a major recruitment campaign has been launched to promote fostering and encourage more people to become foster carers.

The campaign has been co-ordinated by the Fostering Network, the leading charity for everyone involved in fostering.

There are currently more than 400 children over the age of ten living in foster care in the Bradford district.

Many came into care through a crisis such as parental illness and other factors include poor parenting, family breakdown or child protection issues, such as child neglect, abuse or sexual exploitation. These children need a stable, loving home where they feel safe.

Thirty of those are cared for outside Bradford or are in residential homes because there aren’t sufficient long-term or permanent foster carers in the city to look after them.

Kath Whalley, from Buttershaw, started fostering a decade ago when she was in her early 40s. Since then she has fostered 16 children of various ages, ranging from infants to teenagers.

Older children are often harder to place, but, says Kath, they are just as rewarding as little ones.

“There are assumptions made; you think that if you get a three-year-old they are coming with a clean slate, while a teenager will be disruptive and hormonal, but the truth is the three-year-old can be disruptive,” she said.

Kath says teenagers are often battling against the odds in their journey from adolescence to adulthood. She says all they need is support and stability and someone to listen to them.

Fostering is a family affair for Kath. Her son, Adrian Hill, is also a foster carer, having started fostering five years ago, and her niece Lynne Cawthra began fostering three years ago.

Kath says while it can be challenging, fostering is also very rewarding – and she says it keeps her young.

“I once walked into a record store and the only person I recognised was Harry Secombe. Now I know about N-Dubz!” she laughs. “It makes a life-changing difference. It gives young people the opportunity to grow slowly and see an alternative lifestyle.

“You get the opportunity to support a young person at a vital time in their life. They are more vulnerable from early teens to 20 than they are when they are little ones.”

Kath says young people are often expected to make adult decisions when they have had little education and troubles at home.

“Helping them with those decisions is the best reward you can have, and seeing them blossom into young adults,” she says.

Sarah Patrick, Bradford’s Fostering and Adoption Unit service manager, says: “Being a teenager is a difficult time for anyone. Being a teenager in foster care brings more challenges. Teens who have been taken into care may have had very rough childhoods and witnessed or experienced things that no-one should, much less a young person.

“Neglect, abuse and multiple moves can make them behave badly as they may not know how to behave any other way. In the end, they are just children who need the help and encouragement of a stable family life in order for them to reach their potential.”

She adds: “It’s certainly not easy being the foster carer of a teenager, as you will have to cope with mood swings and angry outbursts. You’ll need a great deal of patience, flexibility, empathy and stamina to get past that tough exterior.

“We need foster carers who can provide consistency and an ability to work as part of a team with other professionals. A sense of humour is essential!”

Sarah describes fostering as “a vocation of enormous responsibility” which can lead to great personal reward.

“Knowing you have helped a teenager overcome their problems and return to their family, or find their feet and make their way in the world, is something you will never forget,” she says.

For more information about fostering, call Bradford Council’s Fostering and Adoption recruitment line on (01274) 434331, or visit bradford.gov.uk/fostering or couldyoufoster.org.uk.