CUMBRIA County Council is currently running a campaign to recruit more foster carers in the Kendal and South Lakes area and I’m proud to support it.

We desperately need more foster carers, especially those prepared to foster teenagers and siblings, across the county.

We currently have more than 630 children and young people who need foster homes in the county and are supporting around 200 foster families. As you can see the figures don’t add up.

The difficulty in recruiting foster carers can sometimes seem baffling, as our amazing foster carers always say, without fail, that while fostering is a challenging job it is also one of the most rewarding.

So why then do we struggle to recruit?

I know that in Cumbria there is a huge sense of community and that there are many families and individuals who would like to ‘make a difference’ in a child’s life – enabling our looked-after children to continue to live in the same area, go to the same school, see the same friends, at a time of immense upheaval in their lives.

Sadly, though, the feedback we get shows that people often rule themselves out of fostering due to some very common misconceptions or myths about who can foster. The message we really want to get out in our current campaign is please don't rule yourself out.

One of the most common myths we come across is that people feel they are not in a position to make a difference because they may work full-time or have other family commitments themselves. There are many different types of fostering, so it is likely there will be a scheme which can match the type of help you can offer.

Long-term, permanent placements do not work for everyone. If you work full-time you may wish to consider our Shared Care scheme, where carers offer care in their home for one weekend a month or during a holiday. Equally we have short-term carers who can step in and offer care for just a few days in an emergency.

Another myth is that once you sign-up there may not be support on hand if times do get tough. As a Cumbria County Council fosterer you will be part of a much bigger family, with your own social worker there to support you at every step; as well as tailored training and a vast network of local foster carers whose experience you can tap into.

Every year around 12 per cent of foster carers leave the service due to retirement or to pursue other avenues of work and so there is a constant need to recruit new fosterers.

Last year 32 fostering households left our service and we recruited just eight new foster carers.

Together with the number of children coming into care, this means we really need local people to come forward and find out if being a foster carer could be right for them.

Don’t get hung up on the myths. What really matters is that someone has the commitment and compassion to look after children separated from their own families, and to offer them a stable and secure home.

If you really want to make a difference and do something special in your local area – I urge you not to rule yourself out of fostering.

• For more information about fostering with Cumbria County Council visit cumbria.gov.uk/fostering, call 0303 333 1216 or attend our information event on September 30 at the Crooklands Hotel, Kendal, which starts at 10am.