Blogs
Darren from Canterbury, Kent, has been fostering with his husband for 10 years now. Darren shares how being a disabled foster carer, living with the condition multiple sclerosis, has enriched his fostering experience.
Every Mockingbird constellation is led by a hub home carer in partnership with a liaison worker. These roles are unique in foster care, building a community and supporting whole families. Wendy, a hub home carer in Wigan, tells us how she got into fostering and what her hub home carer role requires.
Kate and her partner Natalie have been foster carers for four years and became Mockingbird hub home carers for Trust Fostering, part of Doncaster Children’s Services Trust, in 2018. Over the last 15 months going in and out of lockdown, they have started setting regular competitions and organised activities to keep the children in the constellation entertained. This has not only supported relationship building within the constellation but with the wider community as well. Kate tells us more.
This year marks five years of The Fostering Network’s Mockingbird programme in the UK. To celebrate this milestone we’re speaking to foster carers, young people and staff in services who joined the programme back in 2015 to hear about their experiences and how it feels to be part of a Mockingbird community.
Every Mockingbird constellation is different, but the first task for the hub home carer and liaison worker is to begin building links and relationships in their constellation. This has become more challenging under lockdown restrictions, but Portsmouth found a way to spark enthusiasm.
Mockingbird constellations are led by a hub home carer and liaison worker who support six to ten satellite families to form a supportive community based on an extended family model – the first constellations in the UK launched in late 2015. We are marking this five years anniversary by sharing the experiences – this time from Mockingbird at the Royal Borough of Greenwich – of foster carers, young people and staff in services to hear how it feels to be part of the programme.
The Mockingbird hub home carer role is unique. Michelle and her husband Paul have, over two and a half years, built a supportive community ‘constellation’ of ‘satellite’ fostering families, with the full support of their fostering service. We spoke to them to learn more about their constellation and how they have found ways to support each other and celebrate together even during lockdown.
Hub home carers are at the centre of each of our Mockingbird contellations, so we thought we would let you know what their role involves.
Mockingbird is an innovative programme for delivering foster care which can bring significant benefits to the lives of fostered children and those who look after them. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has been part of the programme since its inception in 2015.
