YORK’S need for foster parents is so great council officers will run a TV recruitment advertisement on prime-time television.

City of York Council has teamed up with North Yorkshire County Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and three other councils in the region for the two-week television campaign in the Yorkshire region to boost the number of people looking after youngsters in need.

Mary McKelvey, City of York Council’s fostering manager, said: “We need more foster carers so we can keep children and young people who need foster care in York. But we simply don’t have enough foster carers to meet this need. Working with other councils across the Yorkshire region means that we can run TV ads appealing for foster carers. We hope that we’ll get a lot of interest.”

Councillor Carol Runciman, Liberal Democrat executive member for children and young people’s services in York, backed the appeal. She said: “This advert is a great way of encouraging those who may be interested to become carers.”

The ads will start on Monday and run throughout National Fostering Fortnight, which starts the same day. It will feature children and young people with their carers and focus on the type of people who make good foster carers.

For more information about fostering, visit yorkshirefostering.com or phone 0800 540540.