Council social worker wins national fostering award

Fostering excellence awards 2022 - Victoria Cumming (right) with her award with Angela Leask
“Social worker Victoria Cumming (right) with her ‘Outstanding Contribution to Social Work’ award, with her supervisor Angela Leask, at the Fostering Excellence Awards 2022 yesterday.” Credit: The Fostering Network

Victoria Cumming, a social worker in the Council’s Family Placement Team, has won an ‘Outstanding Contribution by a Social Worker’ award in the Fostering Excellence Awards 2022. 

This category of award recognises social workers or social work teams who have made an exceptional contribution to foster care, and is open to supervising social workers, children's social workers and their teams.  There were five recipients of the award in total, including other individual social workers and foster agencies, in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Victoria was nominated by foster carers and colleagues for her contribution to foster caring in Shetland.  She has been part of the Family Placement Team for six years and in that time has helped many children and young people and supported parents, carers and other professionals to achieve the best outcome for each child.

The Fostering Excellence Awards are organised by the Fostering Network, the UK’s leading fostering charity and membership organisation and the Awards aim “to celebrate outstanding achievement in fostering.”  The Awards 2022 ceremony, sponsored by The Mortgage Brain, took place at Birmingham Repertory Theatre yesterday afternoon, attended by social work staff and foster carers from across the UK.

Awards were presented by BBC presenter Ashley-John Baptiste, who grew up in four foster families; and Debbie Douglas, former TOWIE star, who has fostered over 200 children. 

David Sandison, Chair of the Council’s Education and Families Committee says  “I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations to Victoria – it’s clear she’s an amazing social worker, who goes the extra mile in all that she does, supporting foster carers and the children they care for.  She’s a wonderful example of how social work staff make such a positive difference to the lives of children and families in Shetland.”  

Kevin Williams, chief executive of The Fostering Network, says: “Congratulations to Victoria on winning the ‘Outstanding Contribution by a Social Worker’ award.  Every year it’s a privilege to hear the inspiring stories of those within the fostering community.  We are delighted to shine a light on these incredible people, celebrate their achievements and show our appreciation for them.  Our winners and everyone else involved in foster care should be extremely proud of themselves.”

Shetland needs more foster carers.  Anyone interested in fostering can find more information on the Council’s website


There's more information on The Fostering Excellence Awards 2022 webpage

Published: 11th November 2022