A couple from Caerphilly have been honoured with a national award for their “outstanding commitment” to foster care.
Amanda and Ian Hurst, who foster for Barnado’s Cymru, were presented with the Jon and Kathy Broad Award at the fourth annual Fostering Excellence Awards ceremony earlier this month.
The award recognises the work of foster carers who specialise in fostering children and young adults with learning disabilities.
Amanda and Ian were were nominated by their daughter, Becca, and picked up their award at The Fostering Network’s glamorous London ceremony.
Becca was full of praise for her parents and cited numerous success stories, including one about a boy in their care with challenging behaviour who has now become head boy at his school.
She said: “They have fostered some children and young adults who present extremely difficult and, at times, violent behaviours, but they always try to look beyond, find the reason for the behaviour and support the children to take control.
“‘No’ is not in their vocabulary.”
Sadly, the couple’s long-term foster daughter recently passed away, but they supported the entire family through its grief. Despite this unexpected loss, they were soon ready to give another child a loving home, showing great strength as a fostering family.
Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, said: “The awards give us a fantastic opportunity to shine the spotlight on outstanding foster carers such as Amanda and Ian, who work tirelessly to give the children and young people in their care the best chance to succeed.
“We admire their unrelenting commitment to their work with fostered children and especially the ambition they have for the children they look after.”