So could you start, please, Beverly, by introducing yourself?
My name is Beverly. I've been a Hampshire foster carer for the last eight years, but before that, I was a family link carer under the fostering umbrella. For a good fifteen, maybe longer years.
What gravitated you to start fostering?
At the time I was working in a special school and a lot of the parents were looking for people to have their children on respite care for weekends or weeks at a time. And I thought, oh, yeah, that's something that I could do and I just fell in love with it.
One came to me at four and she's 25 this year and she still comes. So you know it's been a journey of a lifetime, really.
About eight years ago. So what was that 2017? I decided that I was going to take the plunge and become a full time foster carer because there are lots of children with complex needs out there that they couldn't place and I kept getting phone calls to say, is there any chance you could take this person? I thought, OK, I'm going to do it. So that's when my husband and I took the plunge.
What are your kind of favourite things about fostering or what do you think is one of the most rewarding things about fostering?
The most rewarding thing I would say are the children themselves. They bring a very special aura to the house.
And it's not only the children that come to us, it's the family unit. The benefit from having the empathy to provide for these children with empathy and knowledge.
Because they bring so much to your house, so much laughter, so much fun and just getting the children out into the community to experience things that every other child experiences is brilliant.
One of the highlights of our household, we have the adapted van and we go out and we do everything that any other young child would do, even though they're in their wheelchairs, we still do it all.
Why did you fostering with Hampshire County Council?
Because I worked in a Hampshire special school and I felt safe under that Hampshire umbrella. And I just think that the people I've had working with me, my supervising social workers, have been absolutely fantastic and they have made my journey easy. And the fact that we are in the Hampshire umbrella, I just feel that we're looked after as well.
What is the biggest misconception about fostering?
I personally think that there are a lot of skilled people out there that don't realise that they have these skills and they're too frightened to take the plunge. It's all about having the confidence to to take the plunge and embrace these children. I think if you've got room in your heart and your house for another child, you know you should fill it. But there are a lot of people who think it will have an impact on my other children. I've never seen that.
My children were very used to fostering, looked forward to them coming and then having a child within the home full time, they just embraced it. So I think my journey was very easy because of where I started.
Other people just don't know what to expect when really, if they did just take the plunge, they would get so much from it.
What support do you get in fostering?
An excellent supervising social worker. I've been very lucky for my whole journey. I had one who retired recently and her replacement is as wonderful as she was so I'm very, very happy.
And finally, what would you say to anyone thinking about fostering?
I would say to them come and spend some time with us! Come and see what we do. How the children impact so positively on the whole household. And make your decision then, because I think the children sell themselves, they're such wonderful human beings that they make everybody so much calmer and open to all sorts of compassion.