Celebrating Our Foster Carers
As part of Foster Care Fortnight 2025 (12–25 May), the Foster Wales Vale of Glamorgan team held a special recognition event on Friday 23 May at Penarth Pier Pavilion.
The annual event is a celebration of the incredible dedication and impact of our foster carers and our way of saying thank you.
The day saw foster carers and staff from across Children and Young People Services come together, reflect, and celebrate the life-changing role fostering plays in the lives of children and young people in the Vale.
Carers who reached milestones were presented with certificates, and every carer received a personal thank you card and small gift.
One of the foster carers in attendance was Sally.
After taking redundancy from a job she loved, Sally, along with her family and two children, opened her heart and home to children in need.
Now, over 11 years later, she’s fostered more than 30 children. Some stayed just a few days. Others became family for life.
From heartfelt Mother’s Day messages to reunions years later, Sally has been a “safe person” for so many.
She’s gone above and beyond, supporting special guardianship orders, helping children maintain sibling bonds across foster homes, and taking them on holidays to make memories together.
“It’s changed our whole family,” Sally says. “We’ve done it together, and it’s taught us what really matters.”
Through training and support groups, Sally’s found a community that lifts each other up: “We pick each other up and keep going. You dig deep and there’s always a positive.”
This Foster Care Fortnight, and every day of the year, we want to say the biggest thank you to Sally, and to every foster carer making a difference in the Vale.
Interested in fostering or know someone who might be? Visit Foster Wales Vale of Glamorgan to learn more.