WORCESTERSHIRE County Council fostering service has been working on a special project aimed at recruiting more people in the county willing to accommodate siblings.

Following the success of a short film created in 2015 by Coventry City Council to raise awareness of the positive impact foster carers can make on a child’s life, 13 local authorities joined forces and pooled their resources to make another film about the importance of keeping brothers and sisters in the care system together.

The film – called Giants – is being launched today (Wednesday May 3) and tells the story of Jack and Ellie – a brother and sister who want to stay together when they find themselves in foster care.

The film highlights the importance of keeping siblings in care together and the need for more foster carers willing to take brothers and sisters.

The film title Giants combines the idea that people who help others e.g. foster carers, are giants in the world – as are children whose siblings look up to them.

The local authorities involved in making this film include Worcestershire, Coventry, Birmingham, Solihull, Telford and Wrekin, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Leicester, Leicestershire, Sandwell, Stoke, Derby and Staffordshire.

Working together in this innovative way has resulted in each authority having an extremely high quality production, at a low cost to each, which can be showcased and used to raise awareness for the need for more local authority foster carers across the regions.

Jake Shaw, Worcestershire County Council assistant director of Children's Social Care Provider Services, said: “This is a very high quality film and really helps to get across the urgent need we have for people to step forward who have that extra space to help keep brothers and sisters together.

“Producing a film to this standard is a massive undertaking, both in terms of complexity and cost. It’s something no single council would have the capacity to deliver. So the fact that we have found a way to do this through collaborative working is to the credit of all the partners involved.”

Giants is launched today (Wednesday May 3) at a premiere screening at The Everyman, Birmingham, with invited special guests including James Foyle from the Fostering Network, Martin Reeves who is the West Midlands Combined Authority chief executive as well as the cast, crew and foster carers from each authority.

Anyone can watch the film by visiting http://www.worcestershirefostering.co.uk/giants/

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said: “The film will be distributed primarily across social media to reach a wide audience, and it is hoped it will to reach potential foster carers to help us keep brothers and sisters together.

“The Coventry film in 2015 had over 100,000 views in the first week, so we are hoping for similar numbers. A marketing campaign to support the film will run alongside the film to help raise the profile and create awareness of the film.

“In addition, Worcestershire will be holding a local premiere event at its annual Fostering Conference on Tuesday May 16, where all our foster carers and team members will see it.”