00:00After raising her two children, Joanne and her partner Neil decided to begin fostering.
00:0517 years later and three foster children raised, Joanne decided to take a slightly different route,
00:11getting into short-term respite care.
00:13Two years on, she's looked after more than 49 children in Kent.
00:18I'll either have no one for a couple of weeks, a month,
00:22and then I will have children that come in and out the door, so revolving doors.
00:27I enjoy it. I know that when they come in, they're usually in crisis.
00:34It's not nice to come into foster care, and I hope that I can bring a little bit of calm
00:40in their lives
00:41and also make it not so traumatic.
00:45There's a huge lack of foster placements in Kent.
00:47Kent County Council stated that in 2025, the region was short of approximately 820 foster carers slash placements,
00:54leaving many children without local homes.
00:57The national picture isn't much brighter.
01:00There are approximately 80,000 children living with foster parents and 70,000 approved foster families,
01:06but fewer than one in five places are vacant at any time.
01:10I get it. It's a hard step to take to say you're going to be a foster carer.
01:16It's a big step, and I think there's lots of things that could put you off doing it,
01:23but I think a lot of people would be surprised at how much actually, how good they would be.
01:31If you're 21 or over, have a spare bedroom and the legal right to work in the UK.
01:35The company Joanne Foster with's anchor says you can apply to foster.
01:40While fostering a child can apply for years, weeks or just days,
01:44Joanne says the positive impact on vulnerable children can last a lifetime.
01:48Chloe Brewster for KMTV.
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