Hiya, my name’s Clare and with my husband Alan, we fostered our four grandchildren, which came to us seven years ago. When they came to us, they were 18 months, just under 3, 4, and 7 – and now they’re coming up to 9, 10, 11 and 14. So we’ve had a good seven years almost of being grandparents and fostering.

I think the biggest thing I would advise any foster parent is first seriously consider if you’re a kindship foster carer, because these children are part of your family, and they’ll always be part of your family. And I also think that’s the biggest bonus of being a kindship carer. You have their background – they know you and you don’t always feel like you have to explain things to them that you’re not 100% sure about, which I find much easier.

The benefit of it is having the four children together, that we’ve managed to keep them together. We would have faced a situation where the children would have to be adopted and more than likely have had to go into care.

But fortunately because we’ve been so well supported by Stockport Fostering, we’ve found it much easier choice with all that support to take all four of them on and I’ve never regretted a day of it. And the children have never regretted a day of it. They had their issues, because children who are fostered often do have certain issues, but with all the training we’ve been provided through Stockport, we’ve manage to learn how to cope with their issues. Them having problems isn’t really the problem, it’s knowing how to treat that problem that I’ve found we’ve had the most help with. And that’s been beneficial to them and to us.

I would always suggest to anybody – if you can take on a member of your own family, be it your brother, your sister, your grandchild, anybody - and if you have the capacity to do that – then do it. It’s one of the most rewarding acts you will ever have, but more so that the children constantly feel the warmth of the family around them.

Enjoy fostering if you do take t up and I don’t think you could foster with anyone better than Stockport Fostering.