Distance no issue

Ben and his wife have been fostering for more than six years and
looked after a pair of twins for four months before Annie, 14, and
Tracey, 12, came to live with them in 1999, aged seven and
five.

They already had three of their own sons, who have now left home
and a daughter, 15 year old Beverly, who lives with them, in a Kent
seaside town.

This is some way from Annie and Tracey’s home authority in London,
which placed them through a foster care scheme run by children’s
charity NCH.

However, Ben disagrees that it is poor practice to place children
far from home, saying: “There has not been a problem when both the
girls and their parents wanted to contact each other.

“And since when they were so young [when they were fostered] and
their lives were so disrupted, they did not have stable
relationships and friendships in London. Any strict rule of forcing
them to remain there, considering the lack of foster placements in
their area, could have been detrimental.