Agency calls for more support for foster children
BBCAn agency has called for more support for foster children once they turn 18 and leave the care system.
The director of Bracknell-based Fitzgerald Fostering, which offers support to children in foster care, said support once they leave the system is "limited" and "hugely underfunded".
Once a person in the system becomes an adult, the support for them and the financial support for their foster parents reduce significantly.
The Department for Education was contacted to comment.
Jonathan Bruce, the director of Fitzgerald Fostering, said: "Many children in foster households receive outstanding care up until they are 18 but support beyond that is limited and hugely underfunded.
"Recent research from Barnardo's highlighted that a third of all young people leaving care end up on the streets within two years and around 35% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 are not in education, employment or training."
Cetra, who is now 23, stayed with her foster parents after she turned 18 but said being in foster care was not easy.
She said: "Everybody has their different preferences.
"When they're 18, they want to be living their new lives, they don't want to be involved in that system any more. Whereas for others, it's different.
"You have a lot of kids that go into that system and they're scared of the outside world. They need help. They need the support that they should have had a long while ago."
Ann Cavozzi and her husband live in Slough and currently care for two boys.
They have previously looked after a foster child who turned 18 in their care and who they continue to support.
But she said not all foster carers can afford to do so.
"It's just very, very difficult to try and get the support," she said.
"There's just such a lot of foster kids who get lost in the system. She was one we didn't want to lose. She doesn't deserve to be forgotten about."
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