Don't you want me as a foster mother?

Christine Green said she had found it impossible to contact the county council employees with the information they needed to assess her application.

"I was fostered when I was younger and I thought it would be appropriate for me to become a foster parent because I would know how the children would feel," she said.

"I've spent all my life working with children, such as being a pre-school teacher and working in a secondary school as a dinner lady, and I've been through four Criminal Record Bureau checks.

"I brought up two children of my own as well.

"We are always hearing foster parents are desperately wanted yet they don't seem to be bothered about my application."

It was a year ago that Mrs Green (55), of St John's Close, approached the county council about becoming a foster parent. A social worker visited the two-bedroom end-of-terrace house where she has lived for the past six-and-a-half years to assess her domestic situation.

Mrs Green said: "Everything went well. She saw the extremely large spare bedroom I have got and she was talking about how good it would be. I imagined I would be able to take in siblings or a mother with a young child."

Her hopes, however, hit a setback because of the need for official paperwork to prove her legal status.

Mrs Green, who is jobless because of osteoarthritis, was required to produce proof she has been married and divorced three times.

The necessary certificates had become mislaid over the years. Efforts to acquire them online proved too costly but she found the paper copies a few weeks ago.

She has since tried to contact the social workers to resume her application without any joy.

"Their phones seem to be permanently off the hook and no-one even contacted me during the past months to find out if I had obtained the paperwork," she said.

"While they are wasting time, children are being abused or injured. That makes me so cross."

A county council spokesman promised action would be taken to follow up Mrs Green's application.

"West Sussex County Council values all foster carer applicants and has set up a dedicated recruitment team to further enhance foster carer recruitment. The fostering service will contact Mrs Green to see if she has the additional information required," he said.

"Mrs Green contacted West Sussex County Council to express an interest in fostering in November of last year. She was immediately sent an application pack, which she returned this January.

"From this date, the fostering service had regular contact with Mrs Green until May. As with all foster carer applications, Mrs Green was asked to supply a lot of information, but was unable to supply all the information required.

"The fostering service has no record of contact from Mrs Green after May. The fostering service runs a duty system between 10am and 5pm and has a duty email system.

The county council also has a contact centre that offers an extension to these hours."

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