When Janie Ashton and her husband Jeff discovered that they could not have children of their own, they still felt they had a lot to offer a child, especially one that had not had the best start in life.

They decided that their skills would be best used by fostering. Their local authority in Herefordshire welcomed them and they were put on a training course within months.

Mrs Ashton, 44, formerly a primary school teacher, said: “It's the best job in the world. The training was very good and quite rightly a lot of it focused on the difficult bits of fostering.” Since being approved four years ago, the couple have looked after 12 different children.

Many go on to permanent homes with adoptive parents. Others go back to their natural parents

Mr Ashton, 49, is a project manager for IBM and works from home as much as he can. The couple get a fee of £100-£150 a week on top of the allowance for the children.

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