Carer recruitment drive launched

Children may need care for as little as two days

Scotland's oldest children's charity has launched a drive to find foster carers throughout Tayside and Fife.

Carolina House Trust hopes the recruitment campaign will help replace carers who have left the area.

The Dundee-based charity is also looking for people to become potential carers in the Angus area.

Carolina House north area manager Bill Wardley-Smith stressed that full training would be given to anyone wanting to get involved.

The charity currently works with children aged seven to 16.

Changing lives

Mr Wardley-Smith said many foster carers came from the caring industry but said gardeners also made good carers because of the skills they used to nurture plants.

"We realise its a difficult thing to have a child coming into a home, but it can be a life-changing experience for the carer as well as the young person," he said.

"We assess people to see if they will make good carers.

"Having six bedrooms and 12 bathrooms is not important, we are looking for people who can make a real difference to the lives of young people."

Mr Wardley-Smith said foster carers could look after children for short or long periods.

He added that youngsters needing care had a range of problems, sometimes including drugs or alcohol.

The charity has asked anyone wanting to become involved in becoming a carer to get in touch.

Carolina House Trust was founded in Dundee in 1815 as an educational and charitable body.

It ran a residential home until 1996.