Former probation officer becomes foster mum to help keep young people out of prison

Katie Harper, 52, and her husband Paul, have been fostering with Fostering People in Lancashire since 2017, seeing two sets of siblings through to adoption alongside fostering a 15-year-old teenager long term.

During her 20-year career as a probation officer, Katie worked with adults who’d been through the care system but felt she was ‘working with them too late in the day.’

When Katie left the probation service, she worked with the homeless for 18 months before finding fostering, she said: “I was just looking for a different career and when I came across fostering, I thought, ‘Oh, that would be interesting,’ because I'd had so many clients who'd been through the care system.

“There's a lot of similarities in the sort of struggles and trauma backgrounds between the adults I worked with and children in care. I thought, ‘If I can just make a difference to one child before they become an adult and before they go to prison, it’s worth a go.’”

Katie and Paul have fostered children with varying levels of needs, helping them reach missed developmental milestones, Katie said: “We fostered two and three-year-old siblings who both had really severe global development delays.

“Neither of them could talk and the younger one couldn’t walk. We used Makaton and Pecs to teach them how to communicate, and Paul made it his mission to teach our younger foster daughter how to walk – he succeeded.”

The couple foster young children on a short-term basis, preparing them for adoption which Katie described as both emotionally rewarding and challenging, she said: “We see our role as trying to get them as ready for adoption as possible.

“When we were going through the adoption process for the two and three-year-old, I cried throughout because you get so attached. But watching that family form is one of the happiest memories I have. And what they've done for those girls, who have severe additional needs – it’s outstanding.”

Children in foster care are often stigmatised, but Katie wants people to look beyond their histories to really see the child, she said: “Children in care are the strongest people you will ever meet. They’ve been through so much, and the fact that they are still breathing, still going, is amazing.

“When you see a three-year-old who has been through the unimaginable still manage to smile and have fun, it’s a beautiful thing.”

There are currently 15,090 children in care in the North West, 1,754 of which are in Lancashire and more foster parents are urgently needed to provide safe, stable, and nurturing homes to improve outcomes for children in care.

For more information on fostering in the North West, visit https://www.fosteringpeople.co.uk/locations/lancashire/or call 0800 077 8159.