News - Newport foster families get free bus passes for a year

13th May 2011

Eight foster families from Newport are looking forward to hopping aboard the bus free of charge for a year after being given free bus passes by Newport Bus to mark the start of Foster Care Fortnight on Monday May 16

The PASSPORT smartcards allow the families to travel anywhere in the city as well as to and from Cardiff and Cwmbran completely free of charge for 12 months.

Action for Children is one of Newport Bus’ official charities partners for 2011. The charity, which cares for foster children across Newport, has its care services for Wales based at the Taith Newydd offices in Beechwood Park.

Llanmartin foster parent Caroline Allan, who cares for Aaron Hughes, said the free bus passes would provide a lifeline to foster families.

She said: “This is a wonderful gift from Newport Bus and a fantastic idea. It is important that young people in foster care are given the opportunity to gain confidence and independence. Using the bus is a great way of helping achieve this.”

Aaron said: “I really like having the PASSPORT card because it means I can just catch the bus to see my friends or go to the cinema whenever I want to.”

Caroline’s son Owain, added: “It’s really cool we have the PASSPORT cards. They’re really easy to use and I can’t wait to see all the places I can go to using mine.”

Almost 40 foster carers are registered at the Taith Newydd offices providing care for 40 young people from the Newport area, yet there is a still a shortage of carers. Currently more than 800 new foster carers are needed across Wales and many of these are urgently required in the Newport area.

Jason Hughes, Practice Manager at Taith Newydd, said: “Foster carers play a huge role in supporting vulnerable young people and part of this is promoting opportunities and independence. Having the freedom to get on and off a bus promotes independence and self esteem whilst also helping foster families save money. With foster care fortnight running in May this is a wonderful thing for Newport Bus to do and I know that the foster families are very grateful.”

Scott Pearson, Managing Director of Newport Transport, which runs Newport Bus, said: “Lots of children use our buses and for us it is important that we provide them with a safe, trustworthy and reliable service. We are delighted that so many foster children and families in the city are benefiting from the free smartcards and hope that our support of Action for Children helps encourage more people to consider foster care.”

The families will posting blogs of how they use their PASSPORT cards over the coming 12 months at the Newport Transport Facebook group.