The job of the foster carer has never been more important. With family breakdowns becoming more common, the number of children in need of fostering is likely to increase.

At the same time, what may once have been considered the ideal foster family - with dad at work and mum at home with the kids - is a comparative rarity. But City of York Council's recruitment campaign stresses that people in almost every type of situation can become foster parents. Single people, unemployed people, young adults without their own children - all are being encouraged to apply. Whatever their background, they must offer the same thing: the emotional stability that the children need.

Fostering is difficult, important and rewarding, in equal measure. Every parent knows that bringing up a child is hard enough. And that is with the benefit of the natural bond that develops from birth onwards.

Taking in foster children is a different prospect entirely. They arrive on your doorstep as strangers. That bond has to be worked on, and quickly. The carer is not to know how long the child is to be with them.

Having created that bond, the surrogate parent has to be prepared to give up a foster child if he or she returns to their natural family.

Then there are the other relationships that will be affected by the introduction of foster children into a household.

Great care must be taken to ensure that the parent's own children do not become resentful of the time being given to the newcomers. But parental love and attention needs to be shared equally between all the youngsters if the foster children are to recover from the emotional deprivation of their past.

Into this equation we must add the natural parents who may be jealous of the foster carers. They, too, must be treated with respect and care.

So it is a tough proposition. But the rewards are clearly worth it, as the Foulsham family make clear on this page. These rewards are not financial: anyone tempted by fostering because of the allowance is clearly unsuitable.

Instead, the benefits are emotional.

There can be no more enriching experience than offering children the love and support they so desperately need.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.