Carer of the Year nominee – Marie Plant
Carer of the Year nominee – Marie Plant
With more than a dozen years of going above and beyond for foster parents, children, families and extended families in Stoke-on-Trent, Marie Plant has been described as ‘phenomenal’ and ‘an inspiration to us all’.
Marie has been Fostering Recruitment Officer at Stoke-on-Trent City Council for five years and has worked within her team of 33 since 2012. Her passion and dedication have help transform the lives of countless children and carers. With a background in health and social care, Marie is not just the first point of contact for prospective foster carers, she provides “a broad after-care service for everyone who I come into contact with in fostering that needs support, guidance and help.”
Based at the Civic Centre in Stoke, Marie can also be found at numerous events doing outreach work at weekends and out-of-hours. She is renowned for her caring and empathetic understanding of children and carers and their motivations, challenges and concerns, offering professional and enthusiastic support.
Marie said: “It’s an amazing job. I am hugely passionate about helping others and helping to find solutions whenever and wherever I can. My role is all-encompassing and ranges from initial visits to social media, and from attending functions to producing a monthly newsletter.
“This role has totally changed my outlook on life and I get so much job satisfaction from it. It’s great to work passionately for children in care, families, extended families and everyone else I come into contact with.
“We have around 370 carers in the city, but over 1,100 children that require our support. So we are always on the lookout for new carers. However, we are making real progress, and fostering within the city is in a far better place now.
“My hopes for the future are to get more and more foster carers in, retain all the brilliant ones we already have and to keep progressing as a team.”
Marie has been nominated in the Carer of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.