Help make Wandsworth a more colourful biodiverse borough

Green-fingered businesses, community groups, schools and residents are invited to enter Wandsworth in Bloom.

Wandsworth in Bloom is about bringing people together, celebrating neighbourhood pride and contributing to a more biodiverse, sustainable Wandsworth, as part of London Borough of Culture 2025.

Schools are encouraged to plant a seed and watch your sunflower soar with a dedicated category for nurseries and primary schools. Local businesses can watch their business flourish and grow by transforming shopfronts into welcoming green spaces. Neighbours and community groups can team up to transform their street, to show how gardens – big or small – can strengthen neighbourhood connections and support local wildlife.

Whether you're growing plants on a balcony or tending a community allotment, there’s a category for every kind of gardener. This year’s categories include:

• Best Allotment Plot

• Best Business in Bloom

• Best Balcony or Container Garden

• Best Community Food Growing Site

• Best Community Facility Garden

Best Front Garden

Best Street

• Tallest Sunflower (nurseries and primary schools only)

• Best in Show

• People’s Choice

• Most Vibrant London Borough of Culture Garden

Paul White, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “Wandsworth in Bloom is about more than flowers. It’s about local pride, creativity and connecting with their community. In this special year as London Borough of Culture, we want to celebrate the people who make our borough greener, more colourful and more welcoming through gardening.”

The deadline for entries for the free-to-enter competition is Monday 30 June 2025, and judging will take place in July.

More foster carers are needed across Wandsworth and the surrounding boroughs to provide short-term and long-term homes for children and young people. Trudy Eastwood, from Wandsworth Children’s Services, and long-term foster carer Veronica Miller talk to Sarah Dale about the rewards, challenges and joy of watching young people reach their full potential in loving, supportive homes.

Veronica Miller became a foster carer 20 years ago and has welcomed 10 children – ranging in age from a day old to teenage – into her home.

“My goal in fostering is to see children and young people not only blossom but reach their full potential,” says Veronica, who also has two grown-up children.

“I have looked after 10 children over the years, a lower number than some foster carers but that is because some have been long-term – the twins have been with us for 13 years. Children have come and gone, some came for a night or a week and some for a year. I fostered on and off while my own children were growing up, providing short-term care for children ranging from babies to teenagers. When they were grown up, I became a permanent foster carer.”

Now, Veronica has 19-year-old twin girls, who moved in with her and her partner when they were six, and a one-year-old baby, who has lived with them since he was just a day old.

“I’m working with the baby’s dad and the local authority to assess if he can live with him longterm,” says Veronica, who has been a foster carer with Wandsworth Council’s foster services for the past 10 years.

“I’ve an open house policy where families can come and see and work with their children. I want good outcomes for the children. That’s why I came into it.

“When I was small, I was in and out of extended family members houses and was parented by the community and my partner was the same – he was parented by someone other than his parents. So we believe that we should be part of the community and give back. I wanted to give back; I didn’t want to be a spectator. We had a spare bedroom and knew we could care for children who needed support.”

The baby and the twins, like all Veronica’s foster children before them, are part of the family and have many ‘cousins’ and ‘aunties’ who love and support them.

“My family completely embraced fostering,” says Veronica, who is known as ‘Auntie’ to all her foster children.

“We have an extended family. Our Jamaican culture means that everyone is a cousin or an auntie. You wouldn’t know the twins are foster children; they are just part of the family. Everyone loves the baby and is willing to look after him. Children need a family.”

Trudy Eastwood, Team Manager of the Fostering Recruitment & Assessment team and Agency Advisor to the Fostering Panel at Wandsworth Children’s Services, is passionate about matching children and young people with dedicated, caring foster carers and says Veronica is one of the “best” she has ever worked with.

“Veronica is a very nurturing person,” says Trudy.

“She fully absorbs children into her household, so they have a real sense of belonging. Her commitment to achieving best outcomes for children is second to none. Given what we know about the outcomes of children in care, having foster carers who provide the extra commitment of offering them a caring home and going above and beyond is invaluable.

“What we all love in a foster carer is a very skilled and robust carer. Veronica has excellent strategies for managing children at their different ages and stages and knows that it is not a one size fits all.

“To give children that sense of security, you have got to be strong and confident yourself and be a role model.

“She is so open to anything we have thrown at her, whether it has been weekend respite or long-term support to supporting birth parents.”

Fostering brings its challenges from managing childrens traumas and behaviours to advocating for young people to different authorities.

E.g. extra curricular activities, education and therapeutic support.

“Foster carers need to be respected more; they know the children well,” says Veronica.

“I’m a big advocate for children and young people and will always advocate and challenge school or authorities on their behalf. These children come with baggage and behaviours and issues. Foster carers see the children all the time, you understand them and sometimes you have to intervene with authorities. One challenge is working with other professionals and them taking you seriously.

“Another challenge is the children’s behaviour. Sometimes it’s really challenging. Where a child is moved on because it has not worked out, we know that we have set a scene for how family life can be so the next time they can hopefully settle.

I’m comfortable with children moving on. If it’s in their best interests, it’s the best thing for them.

“With Wandsworth Council, I feel valued because they listen to me and they are open to hearing my views and take me seriously.

“These girls have done really well. They’re reaching their milestones. That to me is success. When the baby goes to Dad, that’s success.”

Trudy says that the service is very inclusive in foster carer recruitment and welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds.

“Gay or straight, young or old, single or married, it doesn’t matter,” she adds.

“We have foster carers ranging from their twenties to their eighties. You need childcare experience and a spare bedroom. We will support you with training.”

As Prestige members of Wandsworth Chamber of Commerce for several years, the council can support any members with any questions they may have regarding fostering.

This year’s theme of Foster Care Fortnight (12-25 May) was the ‘power of relationships’, which as Trudy says, is key to long-term fostering success. Foster carers are supported financially, emotionally and with regular training.

Fostering offers children and young people an opportunity to live with a safe, stable and caring family at a time when they are unable to live with their own.

There are several ways people can foster, including short-term, emergency, long-term, respite and parent-child placements. Ages can range from babies to ‘staying put’ placements, which are for young people between 18 and 21, as 18 was deemed to be too young for people to move out of care and live independently. Veronica’s twins are staying on with her as a staying put placement.

“The twins both received a bursary to go to university and will get a flat of their own at some point, but I am in no rush to push them out,” adds Veronica.

“They have been in care for a long time and they deserve the best outcomes.”

In Wandsworth, 56 per cent of children and young people needing foster carers are boys, 44 per cent are girls; 60 per cent are BEM, 40 per cent white; 72 per cent are teenagers; and only 2.7 per cent are babies.

“The majority of young people needing foster placements are mostly black or brown teenage boys who need fostering and also siblings,” says Trudy. Since the pandemic, the foster carer population in England has decreased by over 1000 foster carers, while there has been a higher demand for foster placements for childrenincreased by 5,690, Fostering Network, May 2024. That’s the same trend in Wandsworth and the need for more foster carers remains high.

“We want to encourage more people to become foster carers; it could be a weekend once a month or a more long-term placement.”

For more information about fostering, visit www.fostering.wandsworth.co.uk

Veronica fully absorbs children into her household, so they have a real sense of belonging. Her commitment to achieving best outcomes for children is second to none. Given what we know about the outcomes of children in care, having foster carers who provide the extra commitment of offering them a caring home is invaluable.

Business Partnership Unit