Research has been conducted to highlight the support provided by social workers to encourage fostering in Flintshire.

Flintshire currently has 105 children in foster care, with 77 foster carers; nationally, there are more than 7,000 young people in care across Wales.

As the number of children coming into care continues to rise, more new foster carers are needed.

In January, Foster Wales, the national network of 22 Welsh local authority fostering teams, launched a campaign to recruit an additional 800 foster families by 2026.

Foster Wales Flintshire joined the Bring Something to the Table campaign, sharing experiences from the fostering community to tackle barriers to fostering enquiries, such as lack of confidence and misconceptions around criteria.

The latest phase of the campaign focuses on the role of foster care social workers and the support system around foster carers, hoping to provide potential carers with information and understanding of this support bubble.

Helen Murphy, a Mockingbird social worker for Foster Wales Flintshire, said: "I had never considered a career as a social worker for foster carers before, but I quickly became inspired by their dedication to supporting children who cannot be cared for by their own families.

"Our carers provide empathetic, understanding, and loving support to children and their families."

In a recent public YouGov survey, only 44 per cent of respondents said social work was well-respected, and nearly two-fifths (39 per cent) of adults polled felt social work practitioners "often got things wrong."

The latest Bring Something to the Table campaign is guided by a newly commissioned survey to better understand preconceptions and motivations of social workers.

There were 309 respondents, and key findings include: 78 per cent of social workers surveyed said they entered the profession to support and help families.

Eighteen per cent of foster carers said negative perceptions of social workers were because of news coverage, while 29 per cent of foster carers said before meeting a social worker, they thought they would be ‘people with heavy caseloads and lots of paperwork.’

Sue, a foster carer in Flintshire since 2020, said: "I have known the social workers in Flintshire for many years, and I have been a Mockingbird hub carer for two years.

"Helen and I have developed a great relationship.

"I can reach out to her for what I need, and she is always on hand to help.

"When there are challenges, we deal with them together, as the Mockingbird community is like one big family."