SIXTY new foster families are needed in Somerset for children going into care.

The Fostering Network says 8,600 new foster families are needed across the UK in 2014.

Cllr Frances Nicholson, cabinet member for children and families at Somerset County Council, said: “We need more people to become foster carers, particularly people with the right skills and experience to look after teenagers, children with disabilities and sibling groups.

“When we haven’t enough foster carers in general, and in particular foster carers with the right specialist skills, children in care are placed with private agency foster carers or in children’s homes.

“This means children sometimes end up further away from their home, school and family than is ideal, or in a children’s home when a family setting where the foster carers have the right specialist skills would be better.”

See www.fosteringinsomerset.org.uk or call 08005-879900 for an information pack.