Part of that pressure of recruitment can be eased by retaining more of your existing foster carers. Foster Care Fortnight is a great time to express your gratitude to your current foster carers and to make the feel valued.
Retention
It’s likely that your primary focus during Foster Care Fortnight is to raise awareness of the need for more foster carers in your area and to generate foster carer enquiries.
However, making sure your current foster carers are happy, thanked and feel part of the team is also vital – it can mean that ultimately, you need to recruit fewer new carers.
Foster Care Fortnight is an ideal time to say thank you to your existing carers, and to celebrate their work. You will be doing some of that by sharing your foster carers' stories as part of your recruitment activity and bringing to life the difference fostering makes.
You can also involve your foster carers in your planned recruitment activity. Other ideas to consider are:
-
organising or taking part in a Foster Walk during the fortnight, which could finish with a celebratory family fun day for fostering families
-
sending thank you cards to all your foster carers and their families
-
using Foster Care Fortnight to reward foster carers for length of service or outstanding contributions
-
refreshing or relaunching your foster carer charter
-
helping carers to feel listened to by offering opportunities to meet with key decision makers in children’s lives. This could be virtual school heads, children’s service manager and elected officials
-
expanding your employee offer to include foster carers
-
and so much more!
Recruitment
Reflect on your own practice
A lot of your existing recruitment activity will fit in with the theme of #FosteringMoments and tie you into the national activity taking place.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel every Foster Care Fortnight, so consider what has, and hasn't, worked well in previous years. Here are a few questions to help you reflect on what you are currently doing:
-
What has worked well in the past; what hasn’t worked so well?
-
Are there things you're planning on doing this year simply because you've always done them?
-
What ages and stages of children do you need to recruit carers to care for?
-
Do you have accurate methods for tracking the impact of any recruitment activity you might plan? If not, what needs to happen to make sure you do?
-
Do you have a clear 'customer journey' for enquirers?
-
Is your website easy to navigate? Does it contain clear information and how to get in touch?
-
Do you want people to rule themselves out before speaking to you (in which case you will want a lot of information on your website)?
-
Do you have sufficient people to process all enquiries and progress them?
-
Do you have a good tracking system in place for people who express an interest in becoming a foster carer?
-
Do you have the right people trained to answer phone calls, respond to emails or other means of communication?
-
Could you cope with a sudden influx of enquiries?
-
How will you vary your current practice to reach the objectives you are going to set (see below)?
-
Do you have a clear call to action? Information on how to get in touch with you should be clear.
Set recruitment objectives
It is vitally important that your recruitment activity is well-targeted.
Not only will that help you recruit the right carers for you, but it will also help existing carers who feel they have the space and capacity to care for a child be clearer as to why they may not be caring for a child, as their skills are not matched to the children needing care currently.
What are your recruitment objectives for #FCF24? They may be some, or all of the following:
-
To raise the profile of how foster care transforms lives in your area
-
To raise the profile of fostering with your service
-
To increase the number of enquiries you receive
-
To recruit a certain number of carers
-
To recruit foster carers for a specific group, or diversity of children or young people
-
To target new groups or areas for prospective foster carers
-
To improve retention among your existing foster carers
Tracking success
Foster Care Fortnight is a celebration of the power of foster care to transform lives and change futures, but it is also a great opportunity to improve and enhance a number of aspects within your service.
Set clear performance targets within each objective and be bold with what you want to achieve.
Be targeted
Once you have undertaken the objective setting process above, it’s likely you will have identified some key audiences for your recruitment activity.
Our top tip is to be as targeted as you can with your marketing.
A small amount of targeted marketing activity – either in terms of the demographic you are seeking to reach, or the type of fostering you particularly need new foster carers for – is often more effective than a larger amount of more general activity.
Some of the most fruitful Foster Care Fortnight recruitment campaigns have been those which have been crystal clear about who they are seeking to recruit and who for. This helps your teams who deal with enquiries in their conversations, and also helps any existing foster carers who might have capacity to understand why you are seeking to recruit further carers.
Make the most of local media, your website and social media
Check out our Foster Care Fortnight media page for ideas and information on using the media to help with your foster carer recruitment. We also have ideas for services on how to engage the wider community, use your social media and website during Foster Care Fortnight in our Getting involved in Foster Care Fortnight guide exclusively for fostering service members of The Fostering Network.
Foster Care Fortnight is the highest profile celebration of foster care in the UK. The Fostering Network will be undertaking media work and promoting the fortnight on social media, but we also hope that as many fostering service members will join in and develop the idea of foster care changing futures in a way that is of most use to your fostering service locally. We would love to be able to share your ideas too. Email us at fcf@fostering.net and we will share best practice through our monthly members' e-news.
Visit our Foster Care Fortnight resource page for more information and downloadable resources.
