Louise Gillat wants to prevent children from ending up in prison by giving them a loving and stable home
Louise and her foster daughter, 17.(Image: Foster Care Associates )
A couple from Nottinghamshire have fulfilled their wish of having a family through fostering children and young people after struggling to conceive.
Former prison officer Louise Gillat and husband Garry always wanted a family, but had almost given up hope after years of exploring various routes to parenthood.
The Gillats were looking to adopt initially, believing fostering was “something only retired people did”.
Louise said: “We were so close to giving up having a family, but after speaking to a friend who fostered we realised in our twenties we weren’t too young.
“Foster parents can be any age and come from all walks of life.
“Now we’ve cared for more than 70 children over the years and are currently caring for three young people.”
Her work as a prison officer gave Louise insight into how many inmates had been in care in their childhoods, with around a quarter of the prison population having experienced care at some point.
Louise said fostering satisfied her want for a family whilst also preventing young people from going to prison by offering them a loving and stable home.
“I was 26 when I started working as a prison officer,” she said.
“So many of the prisoners I was working with had been in care at some point in their lives.
“Reading their profiles in prison, I couldn’t believe what they’d been through, how many times they’d been in prison, and how traumatised they were.
“With my experience in prison, and mine and Gary’s want to be parents, we knew that we could foster and make a real difference.”
Louise expected to foster a baby, but in reality older children and sometimes children with disabilities or complex needs are often those in need of a foster family.
Louise and Gary currently foster three children who aren’t related, including a young lady with disabilities.
Louise said: “I thought I’d have to foster a baby to feel like a mum because teenagers are more independent, they just need someone to guide them.
“But that all changed when we started fostering our foster daughter, but we call her our daughter now. She was just seven when she came to live with us and completely stole our hearts. She’s 17 now. Non-verbal, autistic, has a global developmental delay and lives with disabilities.
“I taught her to say ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’, the only words she can speak, and it’s an amazing feeling just hearing them.
“She’ll need somebody for the rest of her life, and I’m willing to commit to her for the rest of mine, or as long as my body will allow me to.
“That’s the beauty of fostering when you’re paired with the right child or young person.”
The couple is encouraging more young people to consider fostering and not to be put off by myths about children in care.
Louise said: “When I tell people I’m a foster parent, they say, ‘I bet that’s hard. I bet you get abused every day. I bet they set fire to your house. I bet they steal from you.’
“I just don’t know where people are getting this sort of information from.
“Yes, we’ve had difficult times, but not every child is the same.
“Everybody wants to foster the perfect child, but there is no perfect child.
“They’re all different in their own way, and every child deserves love.”
Louise and Gary foster with Foster Care Associates (FCA), an Ofsted Outstanding agency which supports children and foster families in Nottinghamshire.
Louise added: “Finding the right agency for you is so important.
“FCA was recommended to us, and they’ve been brilliant. “Fostering can be really difficult. Two years ago, we both experienced compassion fatigue, and they supported us in every way they could.
“Sometimes I’ll just ring my supervising social worker because I’m having a bad day, and they’ll take the time to listen until I’m ready to carry on.
“That’s the kind of support you need.”
There are currently 6,600 children living in care in the East Midlands, 721 of whom are in Nottingham. This number is predicted to rise.
For more information about fostering in Nottingham, visit FCA’s website or call 0800 098 4156 to find out more.
