BOB DYLAN WAS RIGHT

The times, they are a changing. Changing fast. Faster than ever before?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Old lag Bertrand Russell wrote over a hundred years ago:

"The average scullery maid now expects more excitment over one weekend than her grandmother sought in her whole lifetime."

But whether or not it's a fact, it feels as though things nowadays are changing faster than ever.

What got me thinking was this. I remembered the moment when I discovered there was such a thing as fostering. I was aged about 14. The TV was on, showing some sort of factual programme. The camera was inside a house, an ordinary house. The parents were both in attendance as were three children. The reporter said; "Mr and Mrs Smith have 2 children of their own, and a foster child."

"Eh?" said I to myself. As the programme went on I pieced together that if, for whatever reason, a child's own home couldn't look after them, they could go and live with another family who would "foster" them.

I put the idea of fostering in my back pocket and got on with being young. Years later it jumped up and bit me, and I'm SO glad it did.

But here's the thing; back then fostering was so unheard of I hadn't heard of it. Come to think of it, I'd never heard of a family breaking down. There were no children at any of the schools I went to whose parents had divorced. Divorce seemed only to happen to film stars. None of the children in my schools had any special needs. Or to be precise, the special needs those children had weren't recognised, never mind met.

Oh, I used to overhear gossip among parents; things like "the woman at the end of the road's too fond of gin". It was announced one morning in a school assembly that a pupil among the 600 at my secondary school was considered being referred to a specialist for counselling because he wouldn't stop bullying. 

But nowadays…

A relative of ours is a SENCO, a Special Educational Needs Coordinator. She's just told me that there are more children in her school have Special Needs than those that don't.

We've gone from virtually zero children detected to over 50%. And has it peaked? You bet not.

If you take an average assembly of 600, it's hard to imagine that a single one of the families represented don't have at least one backstory of broken relationships, bullying, serial incompetent bad decision-making, corruption, drug abuse, assaults, police interventions and so on. 

Is every house affected? Feels like it sometimes.

By the way, I didn't describe a school assembly back there. Nor when I mentioned 'house' did I mean a 3 bed semi. I was thinking the House of Commons. You know; the place where those chosen to lead us assemble every day...

Break-ups, breakdowns, broken dreams, broken homes.

The need for fostering has never been greater, and is set to grow even greater. Goodness only knows what the state of play will be in, say, ten years time.

I repeat my plea to anyone reading these blogs because they're considering giving fostering a go; get in touch asap.

There's a child out there who needs you.

I will always remember this moment; a tiny child joined us who'd had an awful time. A few weeks after she arrived she asked me why I hadn't come to rescue her sooner. I told her that if I had known what was happening to her I would have walked through hell and high water with a sledghammer to break open the door, sweep her up in my arms and take her to safety.

I would have too (well, metaphorically anyway).

Wouldn't you?

It's now something I do all day every day, and it's great.

You'll love it too, as will the kids you'll help.