Foster Care Fortnight: Celebrating Foster Families and The Fostering Hubs

Mutual Ventures celebrates Foster Care Fortnight and the first anniversary of fostering recruitment hubs in England.

Today marks the mid-point of Foster Care Fortnight. It's a time to celebrate foster families, raise awareness about the value of foster carers, and spotlight the relationships they build with children who need it most.

As well Foster Care Fortnight, this month also marks the one-year anniversary of several fostering recruitment hubs taking their first enquiries, including Foster for East Midlands Councils Foster for Greater Manchester, West London, Local Community Fostering, Fostering South West, Foster 4, and Foster with Us.

The establishment of Fostering Recruitment Hubs since July 2023 is part of the DfE’s Recruitment and Retention Programme (FRRP), designed to increase the number of foster carers and provide more loving homes for vulnerable children. For over 18 months now, local authorities have been collaborating to develop and launch their hubs, which are now marking their first year of operations.

Foster carers have been at the heart of the design and delivery of these hubs, offering their expertise to prospective foster carers. Across the 10 hubs in England, prospective foster carers have been benefitting from this support. A foster carer in Foster for East Midlands says: “We chose to foster through Foster for East Midlands Councils because we knew it would connect us to a supportive network within our local community. Foster carers play a vital role in helping councils provide the best care for children, and it’s comforting to know we’re part of a system that genuinely prioritises their wellbeing.”

We’re proud to be the delivery partner working with all of the fostering recruitment hubs as they regionalise their recruitment processes and collaborate together to improve the experience of foster carers.

The programme forms part of the government’s response to the Stable Homes Built on Love and Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive reports, to address the year on year decline in the number of foster carers. Currently, too few are joining and current carers are leaving in high numbers. The commitment to continue to address this is clear, the government is investing in children's social care at unprecedented levels, with foster care receiving special attention in the form of £25 million in the spring budget.

So as we spotlight and celebrate foster carers, it’s important to remember why they are so crucial to the system in the first place. For some children entering foster care, a foster family may be the first positive family environment they have experienced. Foster families represent an opportunity to build strong, trusting relationships with adults and other children where this may not have been possible before. When done right these will stay with children long after they have left care and can provide a blueprint for future healthy relationships.

To ensure more children have the opportunity to experience and build these relationships we need more foster carers. The FRRP brings us one step closer to doing that.

For more information on the Recruitment and Retention Programme click here.