A local couple who have been foster carers for children across B&NES over the past four decades have decided it’s finally time to retire from fostering.
Ann and Roger Sims, from Midsomer Norton, have fostered for Avon and then Bath & North East Somerset Council for an incredible 37 years.
The caring couple started thinking about fostering when they helped a neighbour care for a baby and then helped some friends out with their children.
A few years later one of the Council’s social workers suggested that they should become approved foster carers.
Ann and Roger have lost count of the number of children they have fostered over the years but many of them are still in touch and those who live locally visit regularly.
Some of their foster children lived with them for as long as 8 years and Ann and Roger particularly enjoyed fostering teenagers; especially when their own children had grown up.
They often fostered two or three young people at a time.
Ann said: “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed fostering and will miss it a lot. It’s been very rewarding to see the progress a young person makes and it has been especially pleasing when they have been able to go back home successfully.”
Roger said: “The secret of being a good foster carer is to have lots of patience, to be a good listener and help a young person understand the other side of a problem.” Ann added that trust and confidentiality is also very important.
Jen Russell, Assistant Manager for the Council’s Family Placement Team, said of the couple: “To have shared your everyday lives with people who are not your family for 37 years shows the dedication, caring nature and passion that Ann and Roger have shown so selflessly.
“The fact that so many young people return to see them, sometimes with their own families, is testament to their success as foster carers.”
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Family Placement team is especially keen to hear from you if you are interested in fostering a young person aged 11 and over or would be interested to foster a child aged 8+ right through to adulthood.
Phone them on 01225 394949 or email [email protected] for more information.
