A local council has announced that it is going to greater lengths to safeguard the lives and interests of those in foster care, and has backed up its promises with a renewed print campaign to highlight the part that locals can play in supporting the community.

This week, the Derby Telegraph reported that a new leaflet has gone to print and will be distributed to no fewer than 106,000 city households to encourage new and existing foster carers to take on children in care across the city and surrounding area. Overall, the council spent around £2,000 on the documents, and they are being paired up with household council tax bills.

To make things easier for those interested in becoming foster parents, the leaflet contains a number of frequently asked questions about fostering, as well as fostering allowances and important contact information for the local authority. There are now around 470 Derby children in care, and the council wants to raise this number indefinitely.

Commenting on the initiative, a council spokeswoman told the newspaper: “This will be the thirteenth consecutive year that there will be fostering information sent with the council tax bill which will be distributed from March 16th. It is has been our most successful marketing initiative to recruit foster carers with over 100 families coming forward to apply to become foster carers during this period.”