Thinking of Fostering?
Updated: Aug 7
Pride in the Moorlands brought out all kinds of supporters and we were delighted to meet the colourful bunch from Match Foster Care. Here's what they had to say.
Jo & Michelle told us that they are both based in Stoke town centre, as part of a satellite division of Match, with their head office in Droitwich, Worcestershire. They have quite a few foster parents living in and around Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Moorlands, including Cheadle. They are a fostering agency, supporting any foster parent who has children up until they're 18 years old.
They also offer assessments and had come along to Pride because they are always looking to recruit new foster parents from all walks of life. Once an enquiry is made, Match would then complete the fostering assessment, with the process normally taking about six months from enquiry to placement. They would be placing children who are unable to live with their families any longer with the new carers.
Match then supports the family to make sure the placement is successful. All of their fostering households have an allocated supervising social worker. Match offers the families a lot of extra support; they like to spend lots of time with the children as well as the foster parents. So every half term and every holiday, they do lots of activities with the children and also provide additional support for the foster parents.
One example is when the children are at school, the parent/s might be having a tough time either with the placement or in their personal life. They have support groups, so they might go out for lunch with other foster parents as a bit of a social get-together. They recently did ladies' day and went to watch The Devil Wears Prada 2. The activity took place while the children were at school and gave the carers just something fun to do.
Support falls into two categories at Match: peer support from others on a similar journey, and professional support from the Match team.
Jo told us, "If you've ever thought about fostering and thinking, for whatever reason, that you can't do it, what we always say is pick up the phone and give us a call. We're very sociable; we like to just come out and meet people. The only criteria, really, is have you got a spare bedroom? Everything else, we can have a conversation about. Just pick up the phone - don't ever think, I don't know if I could do this, just go with it. Lots of our foster parents have said, I wish I'd done this 10, 20 years ago and now they believe it is their calling."
To get in touch call 01782 845420 or visit matchfostercare.co.uk or email admin@matchfostercare.co.uk
Thinking of Fostering? created 9th June 2026
