Birth children benefit too
Nicole Rani and her family have been fostering for almost 10 years. The main foster carer of the house, Nicole, explains how fostering has bought her family even closer together, enriched her own children's lives and provided her with a unique opportunity to develop her personal and professional skills and knowledge.
"Fostering has been ever so good for my children",said Nicole. "They have learnt important life skills such as the ability to share and to empathise and they've learnt how to be patient. I feel they have a greater understanding about society now and that they are much more caring people as a result of what we do. I say 'we' because we all do this job together as a family. It's not just me on my own.
"I could never do this all by myself because it can be a lot of hard work. But it's more than worth it because we have such fun times together.
"For me personally, on an individual level, I've had such high quality training and have gained recognised qualifications through fostering with the Council. I have my NVQ Level 3 in Caring for Children and Young People, I've attended training about drugs and alcohol and have received British Sign Language training - to name just a few.