OBE-led fostering agency in the Midlands keeping parents and children together
Rees Parent & Child Fostering, a new specialist fostering agency dedicated to supporting parents and their children together, welcomed around 50 guests from local authorities, children’s services and partner organisations, as well as community supporters to their launch event.
Founded by leading UK fostering experts Jan Rees OBE and Melody Douglas, the agency brings together decades of combined experience in fostering, therapeutic care, and family support to meet a growing need in the UK’s child welfare landscape.
Jan Rees has spent over 40 years in care and foster services, including establishing the Rees Foundation and a family assessment centre in Worcestershire, while Melody Douglas has over 25 years’ experience in fostering leadership and support services. Together with a skilled leadership team, they aim to set a new standard in parent and child fostering.
Parent and child fostering is a specialist form of care that places a parent, or parents, alongside their child in a trained foster family home. This model offers intensive, supportive, supervised environments where parents can build essential parenting skills and work toward lasting family stability. The placements are designed to strengthen parenting capacity while ensuring child safety and wellbeing.
The launch comes at a time when fostering support is urgently needed across the UK.
Latest figures show that there are approximately 56,400 children living with foster families and at the end of March 2025, there were just 33,435 fostering households. This is a 10% decline from 2021 and shows how thousands of new carers are needed to meet demand.
Rees Parent & Child Fostering combines its founders’ deep expertise with a trauma informed, strength-based approach that focuses on empowering families. The agency’s values; Respect, Empathy, Empowerment, Support - shape every aspect of its work.
“Our mission is simple: to keep parents and children together whenever it is safe to do so. We provide support rooted in respect, empathy and care, empowering parents to build their skills while their children grow up in safe, stable and nurturing homes,” said Hannah Taylor, head of service.
“We are proud to launch a specialist fostering agency that local authorities can rely on to deliver the highest standards of care.”
Local authorities, partner organisations and prospective foster carers are warmly encouraged to find out more about parent and child fostering and the support available at Rees. To explore how you could be part of making a life changing difference, email enquiries@reesfostering.co.uk.
