New support network to recruit and retain foster carers in Dorset
The authority's losing carers at the same rate it's gaining them
Last updated 15th Mar 2022
A new support network for foster carers should help Dorset Council recruit new foster carers and retain the ones it already has.
The council is currently losing as many foster carers as it is gaining with only 19 new foster carers joining in the last year, after more than 230 initial inquiries.
It is also facing a bulge where many of its current foster carers are coming up to, or are beyond, retirement age.
Councillors heard on Monday that the new support network would be small groups of foster carers based around a central foster carer who main role would be to offer support and guidance, rather than to foster, apart from occasional respite care. These will be known as ‘constellations’ with several of them set up across the county.
The model is in use elsewhere and has been proved to foster reduce placement breakdown, reduce the use of residential care homes and keep foster carers working with councils rather than move to independent fostering agencies.
The council says that by finding more of its own foster carers it would be able to offer homes within the county, rather than the current situation, where many Dorset children are living outside Dorset.
The council’s people, health and scrutiny committee heard that times had changed, but in many ways Dorset Council’s fostering carer recruitment campaigns had not kept pace and was being out-performed by neighbouring counties and independent fostering agencies.
Between 2018 and May 2021 the recruitment strategy for foster carers in Dorset was outsourced but is now being managed in-house with a focus, during the pandemic, on online and digital campaigns.
Education and children’s services portfolio holder Cllr Andrew Parry said that in the days of the county council recruitment was limited to an annual “foster care fortnight” and it often took nine months or more for applicants to be “approved.”
He said the authority needed to become more competitive and was now looking towards year-round recruiting and cutting the time from inquiry to appointment to 26 weeks, or better.
“It has been frustrating that many face to face opportunities have not been available for the past two years and I’m very pleased to see a return of that,” he said, acknowledging that the council’s own foster carers were usually the best advocates for the service and in helping recruitment.
He said he wanted to see a situation where the county’s own children and young people were offered places to live within Dorset and said he would only support out of county places where the needs were so specific there was no alternative.