One child placed 800 miles away, as churches back new foster carer campaign in Plymouth
The campaign is being backed by someone who grew up in care in the city
After growing up in care, a Plymouth man's telling us why he's backing a new church-led campaign aimed at recruiting more foster carers.
The city has more than 500 children in care, and fewer than 120 foster homes - with one child currently placed 800 miles away. The new campaign - called '26 for 26' - aims to find 26 new foster carers this year and provide wraparound support for the children and families involved.
Grant Calder, who grew up in a mix of children's homes, said: "It's a totally different world being in a children's home, or an institution, with 14 or 15 other children and two or three people looking after you - compared to being in a foster home where you get individual care.
"When you get moved every year those relationships break and then you've got to start again and then you move and you've got to start again."
The partnership brings together the Diocese of Plymouth, Transforming Plymouth Together, Churches Together in Plymouth, and Safe Families Home for Good.
Councillor Jemima Laing, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: "Right now, more than 520 children and young people are in our care here in Plymouth, yet we have only around 120 fostering households able to support them. As a result, too many children are being placed far from home, away from their schools, family and friends.
"By the end of March 2026, 219 children (41 per cent of those in our care), were living outside the city, with 115 placed more than 20 miles from home and one young person located as far as 285 miles away. We are desperately seeking foster families for around 26 children who are living in residential care but could move into a family home if the right local carers were available.
“We know that children do best when they can stay close to the places and people they know. But at the moment, far too many Plymouth children are being placed miles away from their home city because we simply don’t have enough foster carers locally. That has a huge impact on everything from school stability to mental health to family relationships.
“This partnership with the city’s churches is deeply welcome. Together, we are asking people right across Plymouth to consider whether they could open their home to a child who needs love, safety and belonging. With the right support around them, foster carers can transform a child’s life and there has never been a more important time to step forward.”
Matt Smith is behind a church-led campaign, asking more households to come forward as foster carers – something his family offered whilst he grew up.
He said: "It's important to have those relationships right the way through your childhood up to adulthood I think."
"Fostering has always been part of my life, my mother-in-law fostered both long-term and short-term for a long time, and we've been part of that offering respite.
"Thart's given me an insight into the difference it can make. It always feels like you are making a small difference in some ways as it's often one or two children - but the difference it makes to have a loving stable home around them is just massive.
"They can start to hear the right things like 'you are enough' and 'you are not a bad person' and the more I talk to people who've been through care i find it's those kind of labels and words that they live with - often unintentionally that can be so disruptive. The home and a family really has the possibility of writing a new narrative."
James Grier, Bishop of Plymouth, added: "Over the years, I have worked with various young people and adults who for all sorts of different reasons have found themselves as part of the care system.
"Everyone of them, who has spent time with a foster family, has lit up when they have talked about that family and the difference they made in their lives.
“Every child needs the experience and security of being part of a loving family. I think it is part of our mandate as church to make that a possibility for as many looked after children as possible. Here in Plymouth we would love to find 26 additional foster families for 2026. Hopefully this will just be the beginning of something so precious and transformational."