Study Time and Second Chances: Inside the Gails’ Quarter-Century of Fostering
At a corner in the Progress Head Office that provides a typical living room setup, Ms. Gail rehearses the ritual that has shaped her days for a quarter‑century with her supportive husband beside her. “Soon as they come in from school, everyone sits,” she says, tapping the surface. “One and a half hours of study time. Every single day.”
The routine explains much about why former foster children still telephone the Gails years later, sometimes from university dormitories. One young man, now studying engineering at the University of Birmingham, recently rang to say her insistence on homework had paid off. “You were right, Musti,” he told her, using the Punjabi word for aunt.
The Gails are no ordinary foster carers. They joined Progress Fostering Service in June 2000 after being made aware of the rising shortage of culturally sensitive placements in the West Midlands. Six months later she and her husband enrolled on Progress’ very first training course. “When we started, we didn’t know what fostering is,” she recalled. “But we never looked back.”
Since then the couple — known to staff and children simply as “the Gails” have provided homes to more than a dozen young people, some for a night, others for the better part of childhood. They easily described three long‑term stays that alone add up to 30 years of care: a 10‑year placement for a girl who used a wheelchair, and 12 years for two siblings.
Their first assignment, in 2001, all but defined the road ahead: a six‑year‑old boy with profound autism who could neither speak nor sleep. “We had to nail the windows shut,” Mr. Gail said, still incredulous. The ordeal, Ms. Gail added, “built our foundation really solid so we could look after any child.”
Progress now has numerous staff members and works with several fostering families across and beyond the Midlands. But the Gails’ front room remains one of its unofficial situation rooms, a place where social workers drop in unannounced and plates of vegetarian samosas materialise for anyone who looks hungry. “Everybody’s so friendly,” Mr. Gail said. “That’s why we never gave up.”
The commitment has not been cheap. Early on, the couple remortgaged their house to fund vehicle adaptations and ceiling hoists. Nights out disappeared; holidays became logistically fraught. Yet Ms. Gail insists no child in her home should expect less than her own two sons, both graduates of University of Oxford. “If we can do it for our children,” she said, “they’re not different.”
The belief in education runs deep. When a teenager arrived two years ago, flunking classes and nursing a drinking habit, Ms. Gail bought her a corkboard and desk. Within months the girl collected top grades and a place at Leicester University. Another former charge, now 26, sends Christmas cards addressed to “Mum and Dad.”
Such outcomes underscore the theme of Foster Care Fortnight 2025, which began this week and seeks to recruit additional carers nationwide. Britain’s fostering network has contracted by 1 percent each year since 2021, according to the Fostering Network, even as the number of children entering care has risen.
For the Gail’s, the solution is neither policy detail nor pay scale but people. “Any child can thrive when they know someone believes in them,” she said, just as the couple has been doing since 2001.
