The special City Hall reception held to honour Bradford foster parents is welcome recognition by the Lord Mayor of the important work they do. Because of them, many youngsters whose home life left a lot to be desired have been able to spend time - sometimes many years - in a loving family environment.

There are many adults today who owe the stability of their lives and their emotional security to foster parents. Without them, they would have had to grow up in institutional care.

Fostering is no easy job. It isn't all cute little babies. There are often difficult, emotionally damaged youngsters to be rehabilitated. Foster carers can find themselves on the receiving end of violence from the children they are trying to help. A story we carry today about the ordeal suffered by a Keighley foster mother at the hands of a 15-year-old boy high on cider and cannabis is an extreme example of the dangers that foster carers can encounter. But the rewards, when things turn out right, must be tremendous.

Foster parents need to be able to give a child all the love it needs and bond with it sufficiently to make it feel secure. Yet at the same time they have to be prepared for that child to move on, or even to return to its natural family if and when problems there have been sorted out.

It takes a very special type of person to walk that sort of emotional tightrope successfully. The foster carers of Bradford fully deserve the tribute paid to them by Councillor Miller.

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