Cadet of the year proud of fostering education

A 17-year-old who grew up in foster care has been named Thames Valley Police's (TVP) cadet of 2025.

Betsy, who lives in Berkshire, hosted sessions about fostering for her peers in the volunteer organisation, all of whom were aged between 13 and 18.

She was awarded a certificate by TVP's Chief Constable Jason Hogg last month for her outstanding service to its cadet unit, which included acting as head cadet.

"There are a lot of misconceptions. A lot of people assume that I do drugs or that I'm really troubled and that I'm going to influence their child the wrong way, which obviously I'm not," Betsy told BBC Radio Berkshire.

"We had sessions where I told cadets the truth. I told them about different branches of care…that foster care is not like Tracy Beaker and the Dumping Ground – that's a different kind of care.

"I furthered this by having my social worker come in who described it from a social worker's point of view."

She said her relationship with the police had not always been the best but she later realised they acted as a "safety tool".

Betsy added: "When I was four, I was picked up by the police from school and taken into care… I have been in and out of the system.

"But when I went into care for the third time, I was picked up by my social worker and I just kind of realised that the police were there as a safety tool to make sure everything was OK."

She wants to go to university and take a role in family law in the future.

Betsy is also campaigning for changes that have been supported by the government and included in its Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is making its way through Parliament.

As part of that, it said it wants to recruit more local authority foster parents and support councils to do so.

"I'm definitely proud of how I managed to help people in care get closer to the police," Betsy said.

"There may still be a resentment but it's about recognising that it's not just adults who are police. There are also young people getting involved and actually they are amongst their peers and they can build that trust."