THERE has been a “surge” in interest in fostering in Bradford since a major scheme to market fostering to new families.

Bradford Council has recently increased the money it spends on marketing fostering in a bid to boost the falling numbers of families putting themselves forward to care for a child.

A recent review of the service warned it could start to collapse within two years, unless urgent action is taken, with the recruitment of carers was “declining at an excessive rate.”

The review was ordered after a cut to foster carers’ allowances earlier this year sparked widespread anger.

It said that while the cuts had created anger among carers, “it is still the case that Bradford pays significantly more in combined fees and allowances than adjacent local authorities.”

The review suggested that more foster carers were needed and marketing for the service needed to be “reinvigorated.”

On Wednesday the Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee will hear that the increased marketing has had a major impact on numbers of potential foster families.

A report into the Fostering service by Jim Hopkinson Deputy Director (Children’s Social Care) says: “Since the fostering Review, a £100,000 transformation fund has been provided to the fostering service to reinvigorate the marketing of the service. Prior to this, the service had a budget of £10,000 per year.

“A full time Recruitment and Marketing Officer is now working within the service and has taken full responsibility for stage one of the fostering processes up to a fostering assessment commencing. This change and published information about fostering rates has seen a surge of interest in Fostering in Bradford.”

The council recently installed advertising boards across the district calling for people to “do something incredible” and become foster carers.

A council spokesman said: “The annual target for this year is 100 new fostering households including a mainstream target of 25 . This mainstream target is four times the services’ performance in 2016/17.

“In 2015-16, the fostering service received 158 initial enquiries in the first 6 months. In the first six months of the current financial year, it has received 202 – an increase of 28 per cent on the number of initial enquiries.

“In terms of recruiting mainstream foster carers we have already exceeded our 2016/17 performance less than six months into 2017/18.”

Councillor Val Slater, portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, said: “Fostering can be an immensely rewarding step for carers to take and we’re keen to make our Fostering Service in Bradford as good as it can be. The review has given us a clear focus on how we can achieve this and we’re well underway with the improvements we want to make.”

However, the report it says the service faces upcoming financial strains, adding: “Budget pressures continue to present challenges as the service is expected to achieve a reduction of £50k in 2018-19.”

The committee will meet in City Hall at 4.30pm.