Beth Earnshaw, 25, from Swanley in Kent has wanted to become a Foster Carer for a very long time. Her dream has now come true thanks to the charity Diagrama.

Beth has wanted to become a Foster Carer since she was in year twelve and completed a Psychology module on child development at school. She assumed that being single, working full time and living with her parents might be barriers to fostering, so she was delighted that after a meeting with the Diagrama fostering team she was accepted on to their training programme.

Beth lives in Swanley, Kent, and lives at home with her parents. She said, “Becoming a Foster Carer has been a very long held dream, but my situation is very different from other Foster Carers. I am only 25, single, I work full time as a Teaching Assistant at a local primary school and I am still living at home with my parents. However, I was thrilled when Diagrama explained that they wanted to support people from all different walks of life, and I could enter their programme to train as a Carer.”

Beth continued, “I have a really good relationship with my parents and the way they parented me has been really helpful in preparing me for how I will work with children. I feel that having people at home to support me emotionally and give me advice through this process can only be positive. I’m definitely not wearing rose tinted glasses. I know the Fostering journey will have many ups and downs, but I am excited about the prospect of being able to input into a child’s life and enrich their lives.”

Beth has now completed her training and during the October 2020 half term holiday had her first placement for respite care. She is now waiting to have a child placed with her for long term care.

Margaret Gardiner, Fostering and Adoption Team Manager, Diagrama, said “There has been a surge in the numbers of children needing safe and secure placements in the Foster system and the team at Diagrama are recruiting new fosterers to help with this demand. Many people dismiss Fostering as a career choice because they are single or work full time, but many parents work full time or bring their children up on their own, so there is no reason why we wouldn’t want to discuss whether they were suited to Fostering.”

Diagrama offer full support to successful candidates to prepare them for the fostering journey. Find out more, call 0800 802 1910 or email fostering@digrama.org for more information.

View the video about Beth here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_KWswOkdKo