Action for Children - President Sheelagh's Charity

President Sheelagh has chosen Action for Children as her charity for the year.

Today we were visited by Nina Rice, the charity's Fundraising Manager and Deborah Thomas, Children's Services Manager.  Nina gave us an overview of the charity's history, from its foundation in 1898, coming to Cardiff in 1911, and moving in that time from providing children's homes to today providing family support services.  In 2014 they convinced the Welsh Assembly to raise the age when children in foster care have to leave their foster parents to 21 (from 16 or 18).  Deborah then gave us more detail about the various support services, including, in the family problems with parenting, in schools helping teachers whose work is affected by problems originating in the home, and helping parents with learning disabilities.  The other main stream of activity is helping families where some members have a disability, but which, though disruptive to family life, is not serious enough to qualify for help from local authorities.   There are limited facilities to give respite care.