Message from Robert Tapsfield

Fostering offers the chance to make a real difference in children's lives. When foster care works well - which it does for thousands of children every day - it is a great way of providing families for children who, for a wide range of reasons, cannot live with their own parents.

A wider pool of carers would enable local authorities to find the 'right' foster family for more children, whether these children need their foster family for a few weeks, a few months or many years. And it's when good matches are made that foster carers are able to make a real difference in children's lives.

Anyone can apply to be a foster carer, as long as they have what it takes to care for children who are living away from their families. But that doesn't mean that everybody can become a foster carer. Fostering involves much more than being a caring person - although that is essential - and it is vital that fostering services ensure that each applicant is the right person for the job.

Fostering is not always easy. Children coming into foster care may have lived through difficult experiences, and at the very least will be suffering from the trauma of separation from their family. Carers require specific skills and abilities to help children deal with these issues. All foster carers therefore undergo thorough assessment and training before they can begin fostering, and are expected to meet and maintain high standards once children begin coming into their homes.

Of course, it's not just about recruitment of foster carers. It's also essential that once someone has been trained, assessed and approved as a foster carer, they are helped and supported to offer care to children for as long as they feel able. That's why the Fostering Network continues to lobby the UK governments to provide proper practical and financial support to all foster carers.

Fostering is extremely challenging, but any of the 37,000 foster families in the UK would tell you that it can also be incredibly rewarding. If you think you have what it takes, why not see who you can foster for, and apply today.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive, the Fostering Network