Norma celebrates fostering career at Queen's royal garden party

Norma Wilson works as a placement support carer for Warwickshire County Council and was invited to attend the event as she has fostered 130 children and worked in the community supporting young people and fostering families for over 20 years.

In that time Norma has arranged an annual Christmas party for carers, their birth children and foster children and usually around 180 adults and children attend.

She has also created over 700 hampers for young people who don’t have any family to give them support over the Christmas period. Some will not receive any Christmas gifts, or very few, and the hampers make a real difference to them.

She raises money and supplies for the party, gifts and hampers from local businesses as well as contributions from staff and other foster carers.

Norma and 8,000 others were able to see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the garden party, who stopped to talk to various guests about their work within the community. She said: “The whole day was lovely; even though there were so many people there I still felt special.”

Cllr Les Caborn, Portfolio Holder for Health said: “Norma thoroughly deserves to be recognised for the many years she has spent fostering, and the huge support she has given to other carers and young people in Warwickshire. A huge well done to Norma for bringing such positivity and enthusiasm to such a worthwhile and rewarding cause.”

Cllr Dave Parsons, Chair of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee added: “Norma is known in the community for her hard work and determination to help those who are most vulnerable. She will always lend a helping hand and succeed in bringing happiness to Warwickshire carers and young people.”

Anybody interested in finding out more about fostering for Warwickshire can contact Central Fostering on freephone 0800 408 1556 or register their interest online at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fostering