{"id":948530,"date":"2026-05-09T15:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948530\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:12:17","slug":"bristols-most-prolific-foster-care-who-looked-after-100-troubled-teens-slams-naive-government-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948530\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol’s most prolific foster care who looked after 100 troubled teens slams ‘naive’ Government plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Many foster carers in the UK have to reply on benefits to keep afloat, which is scandalous”\"bristolpost\"<\/p>\n

16:00, 09 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Foster<\/p>\n

Foster carer John Stokes(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

A man who has fostered more than 100 troubled teenagers<\/a> in Bristol in a career spanning more than 30 years has slammed the Government for \u2018missing a crucial opportunity\u2019 to sort out the fostering system.<\/p>\n

The Government recently announced proposals to add 10,000 new foster places for children across the UK, as the system struggles to deal with the strain of increasing pressure on social services, spiralling costs being charged by private companies setting up care homes and a shortage of people willing to come forward and foster children.<\/p>\n

But John Stokes, who has recently written a book about his experiences<\/a> as a foster carer, said the Government needs to overhaul the entire system, and will struggle to create 10,000 extra fostering places without doing so.<\/p>\n

Mr Stokes is due to meet with Government representatives this month to help shape feedback on what he said many in the fostering sector say are \u2018naive\u2019 proposals.<\/p>\n

He told Bristol Live that the Government has missed a crucial opportunity to improve the outdated system.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Incredible story of Bristol man who fostered 100 challenging teens<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a single foster carer for over 30 years I find it incredible that the government thinks it can find 10,000 new foster places when there\u2019s always been a shortage of carers, ever since I can remember, due to poor recruitment and retention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last few years more carers have left the service than have been recruited leaving a net deficit,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the organisations that represent foster carers have expressed concern over the absence of plans by the government to address the reasons why so many are leaving the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lack of support, no recognition of their status, no paid holiday and a system that makes them feel undervalued. All this whilst offering a financial package that does not reflect the current cost of living, and is far inferior to the packages being paid to private sector organisations who are earning millions in profits from the local authorities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

John Stokes, centre, with some of the young men he fostered as teenagers(Image: John Stokes)<\/p>\n

He said for decades the Government and local councils have relied on the goodwill of foster carers and the fact they aren\u2019t doing it for the money to place an increasing burden on them. The alternative – as local authorities are discovering to the cost of taxpayers – is to place young people in privately-run care homes, often many miles away from their local area, who charge taxpayers a small fortune.<\/p>\n

In his book \u2018A Life in the Shadowlands\u2019, Mr Stokes talks about his experiences in the system as he became a foster carer in Bristol and other local authorities in the West of England, taking in scores of troubled teenagers over 30 years – which left him struggling financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t able to work as I needed to be available to my out of school children at all times, yet often I may have only had one placement meaning I was financially struggling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis must be addressed. Many foster carers in the UK have to reply on benefits to keep afloat, which is scandalous,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Foster care system ‘faces collapse’ warns one of Bristol’s most prolific carers<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when our young people in care face so much uncertainty, low employment, poor life chances and are at much higher risk of going to prison, and when the wellbeing of our foster carers is at an all time low, then it\u2019s critical that we get this right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at innovative ideas for rebuilding the system to dramatically improve recruitment, retention and support of foster carers because innovation is not our enemy, and nothing in my 35 years as a foster carer has come close to addressing these problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cFoster carers need to be at the forefront of change and not at the end of the line of consultations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Many foster carers in the UK have to reply on benefits to keep afloat, which is scandalous” 16:00,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,10648,748,2266,393,4884,457,11653,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-948530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-live","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-people","15":"tag-premium","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116545268252456035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}