New hub launches to recruit foster carers

The Regional Fostering Recruitment and Retention Hub, created as part of a £1.2m successful regional bid between Blackburn with Darwen Council, Blackpool Council, Cumberland Council, Westmorland and Furness Council, and Lancashire County Council to boost foster care recruitment in the region.

Foster with us, acts as a first point of contact for those interested in fostering to help them make an informed choice about how fostering could work for them.

With a dedicated and experienced team of fostering advisors available to speak to seven days a week, there will be ongoing support for each step of your application, including review and checks.

There is also a buddy scheme that provides regular check ins with existing foster carers and young people across the region and access to a wide range of free training.

The ethos behind Foster with us is to put prospective foster carers first.

The hub has been created following the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, which sees the government investing £36 million to help boost foster carer numbers across the country.

This will help ensure there are more foster carers available, ready to offer the right home, at the right time to children who need it.  

This will be done by extending recruitment campaigns, provide support through the application process and extend the support offer to current foster carers with the Mockingbird Model.

There are many fantastic foster carers across country, however more are needed. Just in the north west alone 760 more foster carers are required, to meet the demand of record numbers of children entering the care system.

Currently across all five local authorities there are 152 children waiting for foster homes, aged between 0 and 18. Of these, 19 are sibling groups waiting for people to share their homes so they don’t have to be separated.

Children and young people need foster care for a wide range of reasons. They may have experienced family problems, abuse or neglect. For others, it might be their parents have a short-term illness, mental health issues, learning difficulties or problems with drug or alcohol misuse. Having a diverse pool of foster carers, from different backgrounds, increases the likelihood of finding suitable homes that can meet these individual needs of our children.

To provide the best possible support for our foster carers, Foster with us is introducing the innovative Mockingbird model. The model brings together up to ten satellite foster families to form a constellation and at the heart of each constellation is a hub home where a specially recruited and trained foster carer supports all carers within the constellation.

This creates a community of foster carers and young people in care who have regular contact with each other, helping everyone involved to build new networks and relationships. In other areas, this has proven to improve placement stability for children in care, prioritise sibling connections, promote active child protection, support permanence and improve the support provided to foster carers.

Mockingbird, a global award winning and pioneering programme led by The Fostering Network in the UK, delivers sustainable foster care. It is an evidence-based model structured around the support and relationships an extended family provides. 

The model nurtures the relationships between children, young people and foster families supporting them to build a resilient and caring community.

Led by a hub home carer and liaison worker, the constellation community offers vital peer support and guidance alongside social activities and sleepovers to strengthen relationships and permanence. 

Foster with us is supported by the Department for Education and has been shaped by children who have been in foster care.  

Cllr Julie Gunn, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, said:

We are thrilled to launch the new Fostering Hub today, which represents a significant step forward in our commitment to supporting foster families.

By providing this new service, we aim to ensure that foster parents feel empowered and equipped to fulfil their crucial role.

Our foster carers do a wonderful job and make a profound difference to children’s lives each and every day and, for that I’m forever grateful.

Cllr Jim Hobson, Blackpool Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, said:

Boosting foster carer recruitment in the region will provide more safe and stable homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people, helping them to get a better start in life.

Our priority is to always enable children to live within their own families unless this isn’t consistent with their welfare and then we look to provide a safe and nurturing family environment where they can thrive.

By fostering with the hub, you’ll be helping a child to stay in their local area, meaning they can go to their usual school and see their friends and family.

If you have what it takes to be a foster carer or know someone who might be suitable, please get in touch with our friendly team at the hub and find out more.

Cllr Cosima Towneley, Cabinet Member for Children’s and Families, said:

Recruiting new foster carers, and ensuring they have the right level of support, is hugely important and we are lucky in Lancashire to have such a comprehensive programme of training and practical encouragement within the Council and in the fostering community itself. 

I would encourage anyone thinking about fostering to get in touch with staff at the hub, who are just a phone call or click of a mouse away, for an initial informal chat.

They are available seven days a week to give advice to those curious to start their journey towards becoming a foster carer with their local authority.

To find out more or to speak to one of the friendly Foster with us team, please visit fosterwithus.org.uk or call 0300 019 0200.