Nottinghamshire County Council is targeting more than 40 lampposts across the county in a campaign effort to boost its number of foster care families.
The authority says it is ‘bucking the national trend’ after seeing an increase in fostering families joining its service in 2025/26 – the first increase seen since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the last financial year, the council saw an overall ‘net gain’ of six fostering families in the service, with 23 de-registrations from the service but 29 families joining.
This is a marked improvement on the year before – a 38 per cent reduction in de-registrations – when there were 32 de-registrations but only 25 new households signing up in 2024/25, meaning there was a ‘net loss’ that year.
Foster carers and families leave the service due to retirement, being granted special guardianship orders, or young people turning 18 and no longer being considered ‘looked-after’ children.
Now, the authority wants to continue its upward trend of more foster families joining the service than leaving, investing £6,000 to display 41 banners across Nottinghamshire lampposts to promote the vocation.
The banners are separate from the 164 Union Flag banners that the Reform-led council announced it would be putting up along roads last October.
Councillor Rory Green (Ref), cabinet member for children and families, kicked off the venture by hanging up a banner on Sherwood Way South in Sutton-in-Ashfield on Tuesday (May 5).
The Reform-led council’s leader, Mick Barton, says promoting fostering is “at the top” of the authority’s list alongside highways and that fostering “saves lives”.
He said: “We have over 900 kids in care homes. We want to get them into loving homes – it will save lives.
“We’ve got cases where we know the child has come out of a home, gone into a loving home, and admitted it’s saved their life.
“We don’t want anyone in care homes. We’ve got fantastic carers who have been doing it for decades, and we want more involved… Taking these lovely kids coming from broken homes, it will give them a good start in life – every child deserves that.”
There were 907 looked-after children under the council’s care as of March 2026, which is a slight increase from the 900 reported in April 2025.
The authority currently has 185 fostering families in the county, compared to 187 in April 2025 and 194 in April 2024, but there are more than 50 fewer looked-after children in the council’s care than in early 2024.
Matt Wesson, head of fostering at the council, said the 2025/26 “net increase” in fostering families in the county was “bucking the national trend”. A government review identified around a 12 per cent reduction in mainstream foster carers in 2025.
He said: “Since the pandemic, we’ve not managed to achieve an increase in fostering families until 2025/26.
“Our aim is to have 25 to 30 more fostering families per year, but that is also offset by those who have de-registered because of retirement or other reasons affecting their personal lives – but it’s a really positive thing that we’ve managed to buck the national trend.”
Mr Wesson said the best setting for young people in care to live in is a family setting, where they can continue to attend their own schools, maintain their friendships, and stay near extended family.
Councillor Rory Green, cabinet member for children and families, told the LDRS: “We’re excited to see the results of this, and I believe this investment is going to be worthwhile. Even if it brings in just one family, it could change one child’s life forever.
“We know for a fact that children who end up in care have a really tough start in life – these are known as adverse childhood experiences – and the outcomes in their lives are significantly affected. That doesn’t mean they haven’t got a bright future or that they can’t overcome it.”
Cllr Green said fostering gives vulnerable young people a greater chance of staying in education and having better job opportunities in future, adding: “You can’t beat old-school nurture, love, and care – that is what our group is about, and that is what this council is about.”
Council leader Mick Barton says he hopes more fostering banners could be put up in the future.
Nottinghamshire County Council is gearing up for Foster Care Fortnight, which runs from May 11 until May 24 and is a national campaign raising awareness of fostering.
The authority, alongside Nottingham City Council, Derbyshire County Council, and Derby City Council, has been running a joint campaign – Foster for East Midlands Councils – to recruit more foster carers for the local authorities.
