Barnados Mother of the Year recipient confused by decision to axe award

Veteran foster carer Margie Bailey, who won Barnardos Mother of the Year in 2020, said she’s confused by the decision to scrap the annual award.

Last year’s NSW Mother of the Year said she’s confused over a decision by children’s charity Bar­nardos to axe the award, which she believes should be a platform to shine a light on the troubling state of foster care in NSW.

Veteran foster carer Margie Bailey who won the award last year and said she wanted to bring attention to the low number of carers for the state’s most vulnerable but said she never got the chance because of COVID.

“The thing I was really disappointed about was (missing the opportunity) to talk about fostering children and what it is really about, the hard yards and how carers need looking after,” she said.

Barnardos sensationally scrapped the award on Monday morning because it did not acknowledge the diverse range of carers, including same-sex couples.

Natalie Dagli with son Gabriel and Merle Ware. Picture: Richard Dobson

Ms Bailey said she wanted to highlight the need for a significant amount of foster carers required for the tough but rewarding job.

“You see little kids and ­babies who are traumatised and they can’t make eye contact and you see them get more comfortable and healthy. It is like seeing a flower blossom, I used to say ‘there you are, look who is here’,” she said.

The 59-year-old estimates she has fostered over 200 children including more than 100 newborns in her fostering career from the age of 23.

“You never stop worrying about these kids. It never leaves you,” she said.

She said she wanted to work to fix the system in NSW where 250 children were stuck in hotels over Christmas in 2019 rather than in foster care.

In a bid to celebrate the state’s best mums, The Daily Telegraph has announced its inaugural Mum of the Year competition. Among the new entrants is Merle Ware, a mum-of-three who has provided emotional and practical support to 17 new mothers through charity Mum to Mum.

“I really understand how difficult it is for mothers when they’re isolated due to immigration, or they go through postnatal depression and they don’t have a support system around them,” she said.

New mum Natalie Dagli said she does not know how she could have managed in the first year of her son Gabrielle’s life without weekly meetings with her: “Many mothers don’t really talk about how difficult it is after giving birth.

“When you don’t have friends or family to support you, it is so much harder than it should be, she has given me that support,” she said.