There have been more than 3,000 enquiries about becoming local authority foster carers in the last year through the multimedia ‘You Can Foster’ campaign produced by Creative Concern.

The You Can Foster campaign was launched in 2010 by 23 local authorities to tackle a dramatic shortfall in the number of people fostering in the North West. The campaign launched with TV, radio and outdoor advertising with the message ‘there is no typical foster carer’, backed by a website and social media.

Chris Dessent, managing director at Creative Concern, said: “Our approach was to put foster carers at the heart of the marketing campaign. We wanted to recognise and celebrate the amazing work foster carers do across the North West.

“By featuring carers from different backgrounds and diverse situations we have helped encourage thousands of new potential foster carers to come forward. We're delighted the campaign has succeeded and is helping to address the shortage of foster carers in the region.”

Chris Williams, chair of the North West Fostering Forum, added: “This has been the largest fostering recruitment campaign by councils across the UK and one of the most dynamic campaigns from the North West. It’s been great to see such a high response from people across the region, who have room in their hearts and homes for children who really need their care.

“The campaign has been successful because it used existing foster carers, showing the diversity of people who can become foster carers. Also, by all 23 councils uniting together for this project, we’ve been able to achieve economies of scale and been able to use media otherwise unavailable to us or unaffordable.

“With over 3000 enquiries received across the region, there are now hundreds of people in the assessment process to convert to many new carers to look after children.”