Fostering Potential

Fostering Potential programme aims to raise the educational outcomes of fostered children by increasing foster carers’ knowledge and confidence in their role as ‘first educators’.

Fostering Potential is funded by the Sir John Cass Foundation and the British & Foreign School Society, with the aim of supporting the educational outcomes of children who are currently in foster care. This programme builds on the successful London Fostering Achievement programme and also on work carried out under the London Schools Excellence Fund.

Programme approach

Fostering Potential creates an educational peer support network in each local area, delivered by experienced foster carers in the role of Education Champions.

Education Champions work closely with other foster carers to increase their skills and confidence in their role as educators, sharing approaches and practical tools to support children’s learning and development. Work is carried out via home visits, one-to-one meetings or by attending support groups. The project work may also be supported by additional training and events hosted by the fostering service or by the virtual school.

Project partners

The Fostering Network is currently working in partnership with the following local authority fostering services:

The London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The Royal Borough of Greenwich
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Kent County Council
Suffolk County Council
Nottingham City Council

Evaluation Reports

The Fostering Network published an initial evaluation report on the first phase of the programme, covering the programme planning phase and the first phase of project delivery from September 2018 until July 2019. The aims of the evaluation were to:

Report on project implementation and activity
Report on impact at foster carer, child and service level
Explore barriers, challenges and enablers to project implementation.

The full report and summary are available below.

Initial evaluation report

Summary

A supplementary report was published in August 2020. This report covers local project activity following the initial evaluation until April 2020. The aims of the supplementary evaluation were to:

Report on how the project is being embedded in local authorities
Explore challenging and enabling factors to taking the work forward
Report on the information strand of the programme.

The supplementary report should be read alongside the initial evaluation report, available above.

Supplementary evaluation report

Learning Event

A Fostering Potential learning event took place on 4th March 2020 at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in London, attended by foster carers, social workers and staff from virtual schools. Sessions included:

The Fostering Potential programme by Susan Soar (The Fostering Network) and Heidi Austin (Suffolk County Council)
The education of looked after children by Professor Judy Sebba (University of Oxford REES Centre). Also see Linking care and educational data report, 2015.
Barriers to achievement and possible solutions by Laura Stagg (Achievement for All). Also see Designated Teacher resources including PEP guide.

A speaker from King's College London was unable to attend but please see the Propel website for information about support for care-experienced young people in Higher Education.