Foster carers have spoken about why they do what they do, to mark the launch of Cumbria County Council's Five Reasons to Foster campaign.

The campaign aims to recruit up to 30 more carers across Allerdale and Copeland by emphasising the reasons to foster and the rewards that fostering brings.

County council carers from across the area have shared their reasons for fostering in a series of short videos as part of the three-week campaign.

Among them are James and Clare Archbold from Keswick.

Clare said: “I foster because I love children. I live in a lovely part of the world and want to be able to share it with them.

“I would thoroughly recommend anyone interested in fostering to find out more, because the children we’ve had have been wonderful and the council have been very supportive and have helped us on our fostering journey.”

Other reasons carers give for fostering range from wishing to “make a difference” to seeing it as a way of “giving something back”.

As part of the campaign the carers also share their reasons for choosing to foster with the council.

Councillor Anne Burns, the council's cabinet member for children’s services, said: “As our foster carers highlight in their videos there are so many reasons to foster – not least the difference you can make to the lives of vulnerable children in your local area.

“They also talk about the reasons to foster with the council, rather than going down another route, and these reasons include the amazing support you get from our team of social workers, as well as mentoring from our carers and a generous financial package – we have recently doubled our fees for foster carers.

“I would urge anyone who is considering fostering to find out more about fostering with us by attending an upcoming information event in their area.”

The council currently has 129 foster carers in the west of the county but urgently needs more people to come forward to offer safe and caring homes to local children who, for various reasons, can no longer be cared for by their own families.

Foster carers have access to social workers on call 24 hours a day, access to specialist services as required and a network of support from other local carers.

They also receive ongoing training, development opportunities and fees and allowances for each child in their care.

Drop-in sessions will be held at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven on April 24 from 11am to 2pm, and Costa in Workington town centre on May 1, noon to 2pm.

An information event will be held at the Washington Central Hotel, Workington, on Saturday, May 12. Doors open at 2pm with a presentation starting at 2.30pm.

More details about fostering are also available at cumbria.gov.uk/fostering or by calling 0303 333 1216.