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Guest blogpost: ‘We have doubled the number of new families opening their hearts and homes to children and young people in care’

Lisa Whelan

Lisa Whelan is a Service Manager at City of Wolverhampton Council

There are over 600 children and young people in Wolverhampton’s care system. Today, the council is very lucky to have a pool of more than 200 foster carers who combine a desire to help children with a commitment to providing the best possible care.  This represents a huge increase compared to two years ago, which is when we started to implement the Family Values programme with IMPOWER.

Family Values tackles the challenges around the recruitment and retention of foster carers and prospective adopters by seeking better alignment with their values. Through a comprehensive marketing and recruitment strategy that works creatively with foster carers and the wider public, the service has enhanced the quality and volume of enquiries. Through recruitment events at the local hospital and university, the service has seen an increase in enquiries from professionals looking for a career change. We are also seizing every opportunity to network with partner agencies, including the police and health.

Impact to date:

The overall result has been increased stability and more positive long-term outcomes for children and young people in care. We have hugely increased the sufficiency and choice of local care placements, doubling the number of new families who are opening their hearts and homes to children and young people in care, enabling them to continue to go to school in their community, and stay in contact with their friends and family.

We will continue to build on the positive progress made with the Family Values programme which among other things reminded us of the importance of meaningful peer support. This has prompted a new pilot project, Foster Families United. This pilot is currently running with four families; one family acts as a lead carer, providing support to the other families through supported sleepovers when needed. So far, the signs are really encouraging in terms of improved placement stability, relationships and support; a full evaluation will take place in November 2019.

The Family Values Project Team has recently been named as the winners of the council’s Pride Award for Outstanding Contribution to our Communities 2019.

Written by

Lisa Whelan

IMPOWER INSIGHTS

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