Leeds Pilots New Foster Care Plan

Vulnerable children in Leeds are to get help from a new fostering scheme which was tried and tested here in the city.

Leeds City Council has been chosen as one of just eight local authorities to deliver the 'Mockingbird' approach, following a successful pilot scheme here.

It's where a 'hub carer' provides support and respite care to a small group of local foster families. It gives everybody a break, and enables both the adults and the children to meet others in the same situation as them.

It was first implemented in the U.S, and was found to improve the outcomes for foster children and give them a better experience of care by dealing with problems before they escalate.

Foster carer Janey Webb was the 'hub carer' during the Leeds pilot, providing support for five local families and looking after the children at weekends.

"The people that have care of the children can often feel isolated or they just need some support," she says.

"It's really important to support them to carry on caring for children in often difficult situations if there are behavioural problems. We've introduced the carers to each other with me as the 'hub'. The children benefit from meeting other children that are in the same situation, so they haven't got the playground talk of 'why do you live with your grandma'. They're just the same as these other children."

The families Janey works with are all kinship carers, meaning the foster parents are caring for children within their own family. This means they are performing a role they weren't necessarily expecting to do, and are often left feeling even more isolated because of family complications.

"It just gives everybody a break," says Janey.

"I've got a family that I support that have a young child of their own, and they also care for their nieces. So it means they can have some time with their daughter, but the nieces are having a great time as well, they're not feeling pushed out. It's just a normal part of their life, like another family member.

"If it wasn't there, the worst case scenario is that the placement would break down because they couldn't cope anymore.

"There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children that are in care in Leeds alone. And when they're in kin care they've got a better identity. There's less children feeling that they don't belong anywhere or belong to anybody because they do, they're with their family in some form or other. It might not be a mum, dad and two children, but it is grandparents or aunts or so on."

One of the children Janey looks after is 9-year-old Cara, who says having the extra support is helpful:

"It helps me because I don't have to explain why I live with my Nana. I find it hard to explain all the time, because it kind of hurts me.

"Seeing the other children makes me feel very happy because they understand me, and I understand how they feel as well.

"It makes me happy because my Nana gets a break and I get a fun weekend. We went to the theatre, on a huge walk...another time we went bowling..."