“There’s a lot of children out there that just want to go to college and go home to a safe bed at night, have a career and aspirations.”
Those are the emotive words of Katie and her partner James who, for the past 4 years, have kindly opened their family environment to young people leaving care aged 16 to 21.
Together as supported lodgings hosts, they provide room in their home for people to live, learn and build a future.
Their passion to help others first began when they saw their close friends become foster parents but over time, Katie and James realised this wouldn’t quite fit in with their busy work commitments.
Supported lodgings, however, offered them the flexibility they needed to make a meaningful difference, as it allows young people to be more independent.
James explained:
“These young people have their own identity and at 16 they are a bit more capable of the basic stuff, so you know it was easy to fit into our footprint.”
Katie added:
“They have to be in education or in an apprenticeship or doing something to be part of supported lodgings and I think that’s really important.”
Described as a “lighter touch” to fostering, the impact of supported lodgings is no less profound as young people gain their independence while still having a safe place to return to – a home where they’re supported through college, apprenticeships, and life’s challenges.
Katie explained:
“You are going to get a young person who wants to do something, who wants to be supported through college, through an apprenticeship, whatever scheme they have chosen, but at the minute doesn’t have somewhere safe to live and be supported through that."
Providing room in their home at that age, Katie and James say it is “exciting” to be a part of their special moments as “lots of things happen between 16 and 18”.
James said:
“With our young person we’ve celebrated lots of milestones.
“When they first moved in with us, they wanted to own their own business for example and I think over time, and the time spent with us, they’ve changed ideas.
“They’ve gone to college and now they have started university, so they’ve really progressed in that respect with us.”
Katie went on to recall the moment that their supported young person rang the Ring Doorbell while she was at work, and she saw them “skip down the driveway with her keys in her hand going into her car,” having just recently passed her driving test.
Katie admitted:
“I thought, we’ve supported that.
“She’s in a place that she doesn’t know anyone can see that, and she’s just genuinely happy.”
Supported lodgings hosts with Rochdale Borough Council can earn a placement allowance of £241 a week in their role, alongside a comprehensive package of support and training to help them in their roles.
Katie added:
“You’ve got groups that you are part of too, so you actually meet friends as well and socialise with people that are all in the same boat and just talk through different scenarios and circumstances."
Anyone thinking of becoming a supported lodgings host undergoes an assessment with the local authority to establish what support they can offer to a young person and to learn more about them as a person, information which is then factored into a matching process.
James added:
“We’ve really jelled with our younger person, and it’s made the past couple of years quite nice.
“Rochdale were great with us and kept in touch and the minute you speak to your first social worker I think everything becomes transparent then. You have a path.”
Katie and James’s story comes during National Supported Lodgings Week (9–16 November 2025), a week dedicated to raising awareness of the opportunities that this form of support can provide for young people leaving care.
Councillor Rachel Massey, cabinet member for children’s services and education, said:
“We are incredibly grateful to all our existing supported lodgings hosts for the time and support they provide to our care experienced young people.
“From practical skills such as cooking, cleaning and budgeting, to support in accessing education, training and appointments, they enable our young people to meet their full potential.
“We desperately need more people to support our care experienced young people though and I encourage anyone who has been inspired by Katie and James’s story to come forward and speak with our fostering service today.
“You have the ability to change someone’s life, and this will stay forever with them on their journey so now is the perfect time to make that first step.”
Anyone who would like to be a supported lodgings host must be aged 21 or over and have a spare room. Supported lodgings hosts do not need to be a parent already or be in any form of relationship and they can, like Katie and James, still work and be a host at the same time.
- More about supported lodgings
- You can get more information about supported lodgings by emailing the fostering service at fostering@rochdale.gov.uk.
- You can also call the fostering service on 0300 303 1000.