Fostering in crisis: can flexible care models fix England’s child placement shortfall?

New recruitment campaign to target adults in their 30s and 40s in bid to create 10,000 new foster care places

Viennetta Basterfield, 67, spent two decades fostering more than 100 children in her west London home before she and her husband handed in the reins during Covid.

Her own mother had died when she was nine and she was brought up by another woman who took her in. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to dedicate her life to passing that gift on to others.