All Carers are encouraged to take advantage of the free membership of the Bedfordshire Association and nationally the Fostering Network. As a Foster Care Association we intend to continue as one organisation supporting all carers in Bedfordshire or who look after children in the care of Bedford Borough or Central Bedfordshire Councils. Therefore, we wish to make it clear that anyone who is a foster carer in Bedfordshire or who fosters Bedford Borough or Central Bedfordshire's looked after children wherever they live are entitled to free membership of Bedfordshire Foster Care Association. They do not need to be Local Authority Carers and people looking after children from their own birth families are also encouraged to take advantage of being members.

Bedfordshire Foster Care Association exists to

A	Inform Carers about developments in Fostering within Central Bedfordshire & Bedford Borough as well as nationally.
B	To provide social support and advice on all issues relating to Fostering for Carers, their families and all Looked After Children in Bedfordshire.
C	To represent Carers at a number of committees and working parties including the Foster Care Forum in order to communicate with senior staff in Social Services and Councillors.
D	To contribute to the training of Foster Carers and Social Workers and support the recruitment and retention of Foster Carers
E	To act as an official channel to scrutinize and advise on Policy change in the two Children's Services departments in Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough Council.

We hold regular monthly meetings and encourage carers to come forward and be part of the work we do for carers, their families and foster children. We realise that communicating with you will be a little more difficult to do in the future. Therefore, we have invested in developing this new website. It will cover issues relating to what we do and the social events that we arrange as well as information from meetings that we attend in both Councils. We intend to work as a gateway to information on fostering in both Councils, either as our own thoughts or as links to official council pages. This will enable carers to compare the developments in each Council. The website will also provide information on national fostering developments.

Please feel free to email or call me to discuss how you can be involved.

Brian Roberts: Bedfordshire Foster Care Association Chairman
EMAIL: ask@bedsfostercarers.co.uk

Without the support of a small group of foster carers in Bedfordshire the Association cannot support you properly.  Working directly, with two Local Authorities is likely to increase some of the work that we do to support our carer members. In some cases that you may not be aware of is that we have either been under represented or not represented at all, at some of the important, but ‘behind the scenes’ meetings including Central Bedfordshire’s Corporate Parenting Panel. The committee is concerned that without more members we will not be able to cover everything that we want to do and also that the views of what is only a handful of Bedfordshire foster carers will not be representative of everyone who carers for Bedfordshire children.

With this in mind we are seeking volunteers to become involved in some of the work that we do. Our volunteers do not need to become involved in everything, but anything that you can do would be much appreciated. Please contact us for more information.