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issue 50
December 2012
attracting and ttracting and keeping eeping carersarers
Planning is well under way for Foster Care Fortnight 2013. Following on from the success of our 22 Minutes campaign in 2012, we are asking everyone with an interest or connection to fostering to Get in the Frame for 2013!
The Fostering Network will be placing celebrities and politicians in our picture frame for our national campaign to highlight the need for thousands of foster carers across the UK.
We are holding workshops in
York (13 January), Edinburgh, (24 January), Birmingham (30 January) and London (13 February) to show you how you can place your fostering service ‘in the frame’ and join other fostering services across the UK to raise awareness, and encourage people with the right skills to foster to come forward.
Workshop places are fi lling up fast – to book yours go to www.fostering.net/events or for more information call James Foyle on 020 7620 6443.
HOUSING BENEFIT REFORMSAs many of you have been in touch to enquire, the government’s proposals for housing benefi t reform could have a signifi cant impact on foster carers in England, Wales and Scotland. With rooms occupied by fostered children set to be excluded from the fi nancial calculation for housing benefi t, we are asking for local authorities to tell us how they intend to manage the issue.
If you haven’t done so already and would like to contribute your thoughts, please contact [email protected]
FOSTER CARE FORTNIGHT 2013:GET IN THE FRAME
the voice of foster care
Foster Care Fortnight 2013
FRAMEget in get in thethe
York 17 JanuaryBirmingham 30 JanuaryLondon 13 February
Get ready for Foster Care Fortnight 2013 at our workshop:Expert advice to develop your campaign.Discuss the challenges of promoting the need for foster carers across all types of media.Share and create ideas for targeted recruitment for specifi c types of fostering.Network with representatives from other fostering services and explore opportunities for joint working.To book your place visit www.fostering.net/events t 020 7620 6445 e [email protected]
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£40credit card booking discount
£60without
WORKSHOP
10 YEARS IN WALESTo mark its 10th anniversary, the Fostering Network Wales has published Fostering: 10 Years On, a new report looking at what has changed over the last decade and the challenges that lie ahead for foster care in Wales.
As we’ve seen across the UK, the number of children in foster care in Wales has continued
to rise, now at an all-time high. On any one day, more than 4,400 children live with over 3,000 foster carers across the country. We estimate at least 550 new foster families are needed to meet this demand.
You can read or download the full report at www.fostering.net/wales
Fostering in Wales: fostering - 10 years on
attracting and keeping carers December 2012
Bedfordshire hosts joint workshop
Twenty-two trees have been planted in the Looked-After Children’s woodland in Roberts Park, Saltaire, to symbolise that nationally, a child goes into care and needs fostering every 22 minutes.
The Forest of Bradford project unites Bradford Metropolitan District Council with Bradford Environmental Action Trust, with funding for the trees provided by the Big Tree Plant Fund.
The fi rst tree was planted by star of stage and screen Gareth Gates, the son of Bradford Council foster carers, and Philip Igo, a care leaver who now attends university.
The event provided a good opportunity for local media coverage for fostering, allowing the service to get its recruitment message across. Contact me for extra advice and support to produce your fostering press releases.
22 trees in 22 trees in BradfordBradford
A diverse range of activities greeted the sons and daughters of foster carers in Central Bedfordshire as part of their Kids Who Share scheme.
As well as the excitement of a tobogganing and snowboarding trip to the SNO!zone in Milton Keynes, the group also held fi rst aid training and drama workshops to which looked-after children were also invited. Not only was the fi rst aid qualifi cation a useful addition to the young people’s CVs, the drama workshop provided a great opportunity to see foster care from each other’s perspective. The theme – Walk a Mile – allowed each
group to consider what it would be like entering a new home for the fi rst time, and conversely what it would be like to welcome someone and share their possessions and parents.
Each participant took their turn to present their views, with everyone deeming it a great success. The service is set to investigate other opportunities for these two groups to come together to broaden their understanding.
How do other services bring foster children and sons and daughters together to share experiences and learn together? If you have examples, please do get in touch.
attracting and keeping carers December 2012
Pimlico foster carers receive MBEsFoster carers for Westminster City Council, part of the tri-borough fostering and adoption service, have been honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of their service to children.
Maureen and Tony Coumbe received their MBEs having fostered 48 children aged under fi ve years in a fostering career spanning 21 years. Their nomination followed a spell by Maureen helping out at a local primary school in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with a teacher so impressed with her that she established support for the couple’s nomination.
The New Year’s Honours are a fantastic way to acknowledge the outstanding achievement of your foster carers. Shortlisting can be diffi cult but do consider those foster carers that have gone above and beyond to consistently support children and young people in their care and have made a fantastic contribution to their fostering community, along with other deserving characteristics.
The process can take 12 to 18 months, so there is no deadline to submit your nominations. More information can be found at www.gov.uk/honours/nominate-someone
As part of their Sons and Daughters’ Week celebrations, Flintshire County Council’s fostering service worked with their foster carers’ sons and daughters to produce the Kids Guide to Fostering – Cool to Care.
The guide contains the honest and often endearing view points from children who foster. It also features a nice acronym for fostering:
Fun
Opportunity to learn
Sad to say goodbye
Teach other children about it
Each child is appreciative
Remind you how lucky you are
I hope for the best future for them
Neglect is why they are here
Great times we have
Many prospective foster carers sight the potential impact on their own children as a barrier to pursuing a fostering application. Do consider involving your foster carers’ sons and daughters as part of your information sessions. For those of you that do so already, please get in touch to tell me how as it would be great to hear your experience.
Flintshire sons and daughters create new guide
Our fostering
Charley
I’ve been fostering for 2 or 3 months.
I like it when he laughs and when I
make him laugh.
I don’t like it when he cries and doesn’t
stop.
I read him stories and let him have my
teddies.
stories
Sophie
I’ve been fostering for about 4 years.
I like looking after children and it’s nice to
come to a group where everyone’s the same.
Letting go is hard if you’ve had them a long
time.If mum’s doing something then I look after
them and play with them.
We’ve been fostering since before wewere born, over 10 years, for ourwhole life really. Welike knowing we aremaking a differenceand helping themwith theirfuture. We likethe little
toddlers.
Rhianna, Bethan & Robert
2
YOURquestionsW the foster
cta
Why are they in care?
because their parents have not looked
after them properly
because the parents cant cope or the
children are being hurt
sometimes its just to give their parents a
b k
Wh
can’t play with
It really does depend if they are old
enough.
Some like to help set the table.
Some like to help around their house to
take their minds off things and keep on
everyone’s good side.
Will they do chores?
Yes.
Yes but it’s easier if you know they are
going to a safe place that’s nice.
Is it hard to say
goodbye?
3
kids guide to
Our storiesFun trips
We answer your questions
cool careto
attracting and keeping carers December 2012
Thank you to everyone that has been in touch sharing their news
and good practice. There has been a fantastic array of innovative recruitment campaigns in 2012, please do get in touch with your news for 2013. Enjoy the festivities!
Have a very merry Christmas!
Published by the Fostering Network, 87 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8HA t 020 7620 6400 e [email protected]
Safer Caring conference
Congratulations to the fostering team at Glasgow City Council for their multiple award winning campaign, Be Part of Someone’s Memories.
Scooping prizes at both the Guardian’s Public Services Awards and the Municipal Journal 2012 Awards for local government achievement, the campaign was supported by a number of Scottish celebrities including Billy Connolly, Michelle Mone and Sir Alex Ferguson, who each provided a story about a memory from childhood. Their messages, along with those from other contributors, were used throughout an integrated campaign including tv, radio and billboard advertising.
Signifi cant success also came from follow-up calls being made to everyone who used a text number in the advertising to make contact with the Council for information.
All the activity within the campaign contributed to the authority exceeding their recruitment target by almost 60 per cent, an extra 20 fostering approvals.
Using different contact numbers on your publicity can give you an indication of which element of your campaign led to the ultimate call to action. Do be mindful though to ask your new enquirers whether they also saw other publicity from your fostering service for you to be able to see the broader picture.
The Fostering Network, Northern Health and Social Care Trust and the Voice of Young People in Care came together to work with fostering families and fostered children for their annual pre-Christmas workshops in the Carrickfergus area.
The workshops, featuring Christmas arts and crafts are a great opportunity for foster carers to come together, share experiences and offer each other advice and support. The young people also valued the opportunity to talk to others in their position and realise that they are not the only person in care.
Be part of someone’s memoriesBe part of someone’s memories
Carrickfergus Christmas workshops Thank you to everyone that attended our Safer Caring
conference at America Square in London last month.
The event was our most popular to date, selling out in record time. We were delighted to welcome the minister for children and families, Ed Timpson, and the shadow minister, Lisa Nandy, who discussed the current issues facing foster care, including the impact of the changes to housing benefi t.
Workshop sessions covered topics including safer caring in a digital world, managing allegations and delegated authority. On the subject of delegated authority, the Fostering Network’s president Jim Bond stated: ‘foster carers should be equal partners. Delegated authority should be driven from the bottom up’.
You can order the Fostering Network’s new book Safer Caring: a new approach at www.fosteringresources.co.uk
