Published 17th May 2023, 11:50 GMT

The dads, who live in Selby, North Yorkshire, had been thinking about adoption for almost a decade. And when they bought their first home in 2017, they made sure it was one with extra space for little feet. "Over the years we have enjoyed ourselves just living life,” Sebastian says. “But there was always something missing and we had considered adoption. When we bought our home we chose one with five bedrooms with the purpose of raising a family.”

A chance encounter at a house party in 2019 set them down a path to fostering. With one conversation, their future was changed. “We met a couple who were foster parents who had been fostering for over 20 years," Sebastian recalls. “They asked us ‘have you thought about fostering?’ and those few words changed our lives. The simple answer was, we hadn’t. So we started our journey to become foster parents, and haven’t looked back.”

Patrick and Sebastian, who himself spent several months in foster care as a child whilst his mother recovered from cancer, signed up with a foster care agency and say they have benefitted from support from professionals within the foster care system. "I think all children in the care system have some form of trauma and that trauma will manifest at some point,” Sebastian says. “For us, it felt right to be within the fostering system with professionals there to help you and the children.”

Patrick and Sebastian Quinn are urging others to become foster parents too.

After going through the fostering process with the independent agency Capstone Foster Care, the pair had their first children move to live with them in December 2020. “We had four children to foster in a short space of time and after that we had two more children for 15 months,” Sebastian says. “Soon after we had a referral for three children and they have been with us for nine months and it's going really well. They are currently with us on a short-term basis with a view to them staying with us forever. We've made it clear to the children that they will always have their own mum and dad. In addition, now they have us too. The children are planning for their future, with aspirations for college and university. We're also planning some memorable holidays.”

According to charity The Fostering Network, in England, around 57,000 children were living with foster families on March 31 last year, but with more than 80,000 children in care looked after away from home, every year thousands of new foster families are needed. This Foster Care Fortnight (May 15-May 28), Sebastian and Patrick are urging more people to consider fostering. “We love what we do and wouldn’t change it for the world,” Sebastian says. “There are lots of other children out there who need fostering so we would highly recommend doing it if you can.” This year's Foster Care Fortnight theme is celebrating the strength and resilience of fostering communities.

Foster Care Fortnight: North Yorkshire dads urge others to foster children and change lives