The number of people who consider fostering children and young people has dropped to a record low, according to a new poll from children's charity Barnardo's.

Around eight of ten people have never thought about fostering and the national number of carers has dropped to just 10,000.

Barnardo's the UK's largest children's charity is making a plea to the government to help them invest in the recruitment drive for foster care in the Fostering and Adoption week starting today.

Martin Narey chief executive for Barnardo's, said in a statement: "Persistent, chronic child neglect and maltreatment is not uncommon in the UK and the rise in the number of care applications since the death of Baby Peter shows an encouraging change of awareness.

"We must continue to support social workers to intervene early when they feel a child is at risk and the increase in referrals is resulting in an urgent call on expenditure, and the government must find the funds."

A poll conducted by YouGov noted that 18 per cent of people who thought about fostering had not taken any more steps to becoming a carer.

They found that respondents pointed to a number of reasons why they had not taken further steps, including control over what type of children they would be matched with and the option to offer short spells of foster care.

Commenting, Jonathan Ewen, director of fostering and adoption, Barnardo's, said: "Barnardo's works very closely with its carers to identify the type of child best suited to them and their families and short break carers are also in high demand.

"Yes fostering can be challenging, the same as any job, but the rewards are immeasurable – you are helping to turn children's lives around."
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