AN ambitious Cofton Hackett teenager, who is pursuing her dream of becoming a police officer, has become a face of foster care.

Foster Care Fortnight runs until this Sunday (May 27) and this year is focused specifically on young people who, in spite of their complex histories, have courage and ambition and have benefitted from the support of foster carers. It is hoped their stories will encourage more people to come forward and fill in spaces desperately needed for new helpers.

Rachel Hodgetts, aged 18, is one of the faces of foster care. The former Waseley Hills High School pupil has been with her current foster carer for six years. She had been in care since the age of four and had six carers before being placed with her current one, who is a Worcestershire County Council carer.

Rachel said: "My carer is a strong and determind woman and she has been great to me. I've have settled down since I've been with her and we are quite similar.

"To be a good foster carer you need to be prepared for the good and the bad, and if you get it right then great things will come out of it."

Rachel, who is currently at Birmingham College of Food, has completed her Duke of Edinburgh gold award and took her foster carer to Buckingham Palace as a thank you for her support when she collected the award.

Foster Care Fortnight, co-ordinated by the Fostering Network, is an annual UK-wide awareness campaign which raises the profile of fostering and highlights the need for more foster carers.

Fostering is looking after a child or young person and caring for them while their own parents are unable to do so.

Carers provide a safe, secure and stable family environment for children in care and help them to develop and succeed while they are unable to live with their own family.

There are a variety of reasons that children may need to be fostered: bereavement, neglect, illness or family breakdown. In some cases a child or young person may be removed from his or her family for their own safety.

Fostering is usually a temporary way of offering children a home until they can return to their own families. However, when a child cannot return home, decisions have to be made to find a permanent family for the child.

Foster carers need to have the time and energy to invest in a child or young person. They must be able to communicate effectively, not only with children and young people but with social workers, the children's birth families and others concerned with the wellbeing of the children in their care. Carers should be aged over 21 and be able to give the child their own bedroom.

Residents can apply to foster regardless of marital status, sexuality or residential status.

A drop-in session for interested carers is being held at the Bromsgrove Hotel, in Kidderminster Road, Bromsgrove, on June 13 from 6.30pm-9pm.

For details e-mail cs-adoption&fostering@worcestershire.gov.uk, call 0800 028 2158 or visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk/fostering