In Gloucestershire, nearly 500 children are in foster care with around 210 carers. Charles Welsh, from Gloucester, has first hand experience of what it's like to grow up in a foster home. After the sudden death of his parents, Charles and his siblings were fostered by his aunt and moved to Scotland.  It was a very traumatic period, obviously going through such loss leaves its scars. But with my situation and having my own brothers and sisters about me, and an extended support network in my parents extended families in Scotland, it made a huge difference.  | | Charles Welsh |
Charles said: "When I was seven my father died and we were living in Huddersfield at the time. "Within six months of that my mother was diagnosed as being terminally ill, and within two year she died. "We then moved to Scotland and together with my five brothers and sisters moved into my aunt’s house." To foster or adopt Although Charles spent his teenage years living with his foster parents, he was never officially adopted. "To be honest it was because we didn’t want to be. My aunt was in her sixties at the time, and was retired and so was my uncle Joseph. "There were six children, the oldest being 14 and the youngest was 8 years old who all descended on their household. "We as a group of children were very strong and wanted to keep our own identity and our name – Welsh. "We wanted to remain as a unit and my foster parents at that time respected that. They wanted us to remain as a family whilst we were living with them." Coping with death The death of his parents had a profound effect on the 10 year old Charles. "It was a very traumatic period, obviously going through such loss leaves its scars. But with my situation and having my own brothers and sisters about me, and an extended support network in my parents extended families in Scotland, it made a huge difference. Today Charles thinks it is extremely important for children in foster care to keep their own identity. | If you’re transferred into a new set of family boundaries and parenting skills, the thing that holds you together is you. | | Charles Welsh |
“Your identity is the one thing you own and as you grow up it's your self confidence, your self belief, your culture, your heritage and it’s your personality. If you’re transferred into a new set of family boundaries and parenting skills, the thing that holds you together is you. "You have to adapt and you have to change, but you have to remain honest to yourself because in later life you have to deal with things, and having that self confidence and self belief you can then translate it into other areas as a young child. "If you lose that, when you get older as a lot of children in foster care, adopted children, or children abandoned in homes, find it very difficult to create stability and very difficult to deal with problems as they arise. They tend to run away from it. I was fortunate to have that security built into my foster relationship." Guilt After the death of his parents and the journey to Scotland Charles experienced a malestrom of emotions about his situation. "There was a whole mismatch of competing thoughts, some which were complementary and some which were quite destructive. "There is a sense of guilt if you lose parents when you're a child and you think is it something I’ve done, is there something I could have changed? Because clearly what you want is a status quo. "You want to go back to the security of having your own mother and father in your own home. Sadly that doesn’t happen but as a child you struggle with that and that’s part trauma and part loss." Taking Care Taking Care week highlights the fact there are large numbers of children in care in Gloucestershire and Charles thinks it is a worthwhile campaign. | You can’t get anything more vulnerable than a child who has been orphaned, or taken into care for safety reasons, and if we don’t support them and help them then we’re actually failing society and it’s wrong. | | Charles Welsh |
"If you don’t look after the most vulnerable then society in my view is failing. You can’t get anything more vulnerable than a child who has been orphaned, or taken into care for safety reasons, and if we don’t support them and help them then we’re actually failing society and it’s wrong. Charles is now involved with the Cheltenham Community Fostering based in Gloucester. “It's a charity looking to place children in foster homes, placing children with families in areas they are familiar with so they don’t lose their networks, and they don’t lose identity. "It’s a very worthwhile thing and I’d encourage anybody who is interesting in fostering to contact an agency and go through the training, because as a society we should be looking after our most vulnerable." »If you think you could be a foster parent call 01242 532654 or 532655 or see the county council website to find out more. 
Did YOU grow up in care? Have you been a foster carer or adopted a child? Share your experiences, good or bad, with BBC Gloucestershire. (NB email addresses will not be published)
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