A former police community support officer has said the “heart-breaking” task of taking vulnerable children to a police station opened his eyes to the strain on the care system.

Chris, from West Oxfordshire, said being faced with the lack of placements for young people in care led to his decision to become a foster parent.

With his wife Tabitha, he now has a permanent teenage foster daughter and offers temporary places for babies.

“I could see both sides of it and see that actually there’s a big need there,” he said.

“These children need to have the same opportunities as any other child their age.

“And when children did go into care, sometimes they were taken to a police station because it was the only safe place to go.”

Tabitha said since they started fostering, the security the placement had given her foster daughter had been life changing.

“It’s having her own space. It’s her home,” she said. “This is something she hasn’t had for quite a while.

“It’s her own space and that she is settled and that she doesn’t need to move anywhere else again.

“She doesn’t need bags or anything like that. She can just be herself.”

Despite Chris and Tabitha’s positive experience, Oxfordshire has seen many foster carers leave the system in recent years.

The latest figures show for the past two financial years there has been an overall decrease in the number of placements, with recruitment not keeping up with those deregistering.

Oxfordshire County Council said it did begin to reverse that trend in 2025, but admitted it was unlikely to reach this year’s recruitment target of 20 new foster carers.

Nationally, there has been a 10% decline in foster homes in England since 2021.

Tabitha said it was clear the system was under strain.

“Communication is the massive thing,” she said. “Sometimes you do feel a little bit left on a limb.

“And we do really understand that the amount of work that social workers have within their day-to-day is massive. It really is.”

Chris said like many other public services, there was a need for investment.

“Ideally you’d love to be able to throw loads of money at it and get people involved and social workers,” he said.

“But it’s just not possible, you know, and you make the best of what you’ve got.”

Oxfordshire County Council said it was looking at new approaches to improve recruitment and retention, including incentives like council tax relief.

Sean Gaul, the cabinet member for children and young people, said: “There will always be that we can be doing, but when I walk around the floor with where the social workers work, where the officers work, I’m seeing a bunch of people that really, really care about what they do.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The government said it planned to tackle the growing shortage of foster carers across the country with a comprehensive package of reforms to be introduced this year.