Foster Carer Recruitment & Retention Strategy

Foster Carer Recruitment
& Retention Strategy
2011-2014
Ceri Martin
Market Analyst
Family Placement Team
1

Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 2

Contents
Introduction 4
Part 1 - Recruitment
1.0 Aims and Objectives 4
2.0 Previous Recruitment Activity 5
3.0 Management Information 6
4.0 Recruitment Strategy 9
5.0 Budget 11
6.0 Action Plan 12
7.0 Implementation,
Review and Evaluation 14
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 3

Introduction
This strategy will outline the approach to be taken in recruiting and retaining
Caerphilly approved foster carers between 2011 and 2014.
Part one of the strategy will focus on the recruitment of new carers and part
two will focus on retaining our existing carers.
Part 1 – Recruitment
1.0 Aims and Objectives
The overall objective of this strategy is:
To increase the number, and quality of in house Foster Carers in
order to improve placement choice and provide better outcomes
for children.
Due to a variety of reasons, a number of carers terminate their
approval status every year. These reasons range from retirement, ill
health, specific care ending or carers obtaining orders on the children.
Figures show that at least 12 general foster carers need to be recruited
every year to break even.
As a result of these enquiries the aim is to approve:
• 40 new Caerphilly approved general foster carers by 31 st
March 2012
• 42 new Caerphilly approved general foster carers between
1 st April 2012 and 31 st March 2013
• 44 new Caerphilly approved general foster carers between
1 st April 2013 and 31 st March 2014
(Does not including family and friends carers)
These figures are based on the recruitment and assessment team
remaining fully staffed for the next 3 years, and that the family and
friends and Regulation 38 assessments are being allocated solely to
the family & friends social worker
Of these new carers the aim is to approve at least 15 of these
every year to care for children over the age of 10.
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 4

In order to meet these aims and objectives, management information is
provided to monitor the recruitment and retention of foster carers to
ensure that the budget is invested wisely and identify gaps in provision.
The analysis of this information will inform the on-going strategy. The
information needed regularly is as follows:
• Number of enquiries and where they have come from
• Number of initial visits carried out
• Number of assessments allocated
• Number of carers approved
• Number of carers terminated
• Number of children needing placements in-house and their ages
For a detailed flowchart of the initial enquiry process please see
appendix 1 on page 15
2.0 Previous Recruitment Activity
The recruitment of foster carers is a whole process, the marketing
activity, which raises the awareness of the need for foster carers, forms
just one part of that process. The recruitment activities need to be
consistent, thus providing the ‘drip-drip’ effect. This ensures that when
people are ready to foster, that Caerphilly County Borough Council is
their first choice.
It is worth noting that it is very difficult to evaluate what recruitment
activities actually work. On average it can take a person between 18
months and 2 years to come to the decision that they want to foster,
therefore what is important is that there is a constant presence of
fostering materials in various forms to encourage people to pick
Caerphilly as their agency of choice.
There are many ways that the awareness of the need for good quality
foster carers can be raised, and over the past 5 years a number of
approaches have been tried, which include:
• Coffee mornings for people to drop in to speak to the team and
carers about fostering
• Publicity postcards distributed during the summer holidays
• Bus advertising
• Radio advertising
• Advertising in the South Wales Echo
• Advertising in the Western Mail
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 5

To encourage people to care for our priority groups (children over 10,
sibling groups and Long Term fostering), a number of one off initiatives
have been developed. These include:
• New images introduced on our publicity material to aid recruiting
carers for teenagers and sibling groups
• Revised information pack developed to give applicants a better
understanding of what being a foster carer for children aged
over 10 actually is
• Production of a DVD, using Caerphilly’s own foster carers to talk
about their experiences, focussing on the need for carers for
older children
• The managing of all initial enquires are now dealt with by the
recruitment and assessment team, ensuring a professional and
streamlined approach.
• Production of on-line form enquirers to access the website at a
more convenient time for them.
All of these are proving successful and positive feedback has been
given to the team at initial visit stage.
During the later months of 2010-2011, to try and increase the pool of
carers for older children around 3000 homes were targeted within the
borough with a direct mail letter and flyer. These properties were in the
higher council tax bands, with the hope that these are the larger
properties in the Borough, and therefore may have space for fostering.
The aim of this initiative was to make people think about the spare
room in their home, and to think about fostering, it also raised a number
of direct enquiries.
The following techniques have always generated a number of
enquiries, specifically for the harder to place children and therefore will
continue to be used and promoted:
• The Website
• Word of Mouth – Suggest the Best Scheme
• Adverts in the Caerphilly Campaign
• Features in the Councils newspaper Newsline
3.0 Management Information
Management Information has indicated that there are quiet times in the
year where there are very little enquiries. These times tend to be
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 6

during the summer (July and August) and over Christmas (November
and December)
The following graph indicates the number of enquiries received to be a
foster carer during 09-10 (147) and 10-11 (178). (Prior to 2009 general
enquiries were collated along with Reg 38 and Family and Friends
enquiries, therefore it was not possible to separate them)
Enquiries
30
25
20
15
10
2009-2010
2010-2011
5
0
April June Aug Oct Dec Feb
May and June generate the most enquiries, as this is when the
National Campaign ‘Foster Care Fortnight’ is, and a lot of media is
generated at this time.
The marketing activity is recorded at the time of the enquiry, and the
reasons applicants gave for what made them contact Caerphilly over
the past 2 years are as follows:
2009-2010
Website
Big Cheese
37
Campaign
55
Current Carer for another authority
Direct Mail
7
2
11
10
6
7
12
New sline
Word of Mouth
Poster/flyer
Previous Applicant
Other
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 7

2010-2011
Website
34
Big Cheese
Campaign
7
2
13
86
Current Carer for another authority
Direct Mail
New sline
Word of Mouth
7
3
6
5
15
Poster/flyer
Previous Applicant
Other
Almost 50% of all enquiries in 2010-2011 were generated via the
website. It is quite difficult to determine what made someone view our
website, therefore the on-line form will need to be amended to establish
why people visit the website.
The management information on foster carers for 2009-2010 and 2010-
2011 is as follows:
General carers
2009-2010 2010-2011
Enquiries 147 178
Initial Visits 57 82
Assessments Started 28 42
Carers Approved 2 14
Family & Friends carers
2009-2010 2010-2011
Enquiries 47 35
Assessments Started 38 29
Carers Approved 13 5
Carers Approval Status Terminated
2009-2010 2010-2011
General 12 8
Family & Friends 3 12
Number of carers Approved (as at 31 st March)
2009-2010 2010-2011
General 88 96
Family & Friends 25 20
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 8

4.0 Recruitment Strategy
The recruitment strategy covers the whole of the recruitment and
assessment process, from raising the awareness of the need for
carers, training and assessing applicants and getting them approved.
It is recommended that a number of recruitment activities be carried out
over the next few years to continue to raise the number of approved
foster carers in Caerphilly, particularly for the over 10’s.
To raise the awareness:
• The existing ‘fostering brand’ has been in place for a number of
years, and therefore it may be time for a re-brand that will
introduce new images with the focus on attracting carers for
children over the age of 10. Therefore there will be a need to
produce new marketing material such as posters, flyers and
adverts and liase with the Communications team regarding a
launch
• Continued advertising in the Caerphilly Campaign and Newsline
• Fostering information inserted into Council employee payslips
• Attend the Big Cheese (annual event in Caerphilly, attracting
around 100,000 people)
• Distribution of posters and flyers around the Borough
• Advertise on billboards around the Borough
• Continue to use Yellow Pages
Information giving:
• Continue to update the website regularly
• Review the information pack sent to all applicants
The assessment process:
Many positive comments have been received from applicants regarding
our very informative pack, our knowledgeable staff and our timely
effective processes. Therefore the team must:
• Continue to deal with all fostering enquiries in the recruitment
and assessment team
• Ensure that the information pack is sent out within 24 hours of
enquiry
• Continue to provide a courtesy call after a week to discuss
fostering further with the applicant
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 9

• Continue to prioritise assessments for applicants who can
accommodate children over 10.
• Continue to ensure that good quality training is provided at
regular intervals for applicants pre-approval
• Explore the use of the mentors at the enquiry stage, to speak to
applicants about fostering.
Specific recruitment activity for the over 10’s:
• Explore whether current carers approved to care for younger
children would be interested in changing their status and caring
for children over 10.
• Explore further ways in which young people who are currently
placed with carers can help with the recruitment of new foster
carers
• Continue to ensure that the majority of advertising and publicity
focussing on the need for carers over the age of 10.
• Continue to encourage existing foster carers to use word of
mouth promotion under the ‘Suggest the Best’ scheme, for
which they are financially rewarded once a new carer is
approved.
• To explore new technology such as Twitter, Facebook and
Texting in respect of attracting new carers. The SEWIC regional
recruitment group are already exploring these methods.
• The MOSAIC Public Sector system
To monitor feedback of our publicity, a system will need to be devised
and put in place for feedback at initial visit stage.
Any recruitment activity that can be carried out collaboratively needs to
be explored through a SEWIC Regional Recruitment Group
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 10

5.0 Budget
The recruitment budget in the past has been around £35,000, and the
following recruitment activity will all come from this budget. Plans for the
subsequent years will be added annually.
Activity Frequency Cost
Pre-approval training 5 courses
£7500
April 2011
June/July 2011
September 2011
November 2011
February 2011
Family & Friends Preapproval
2 courses £1600
training
Sons & Daughters training 1 course £850
Big Cheese Annually – July 2010 £1200
MOSAIC Public Sector System One off payment £1000
Billboards 6 weekly block October/Nov £4950
Advertising Newsline Bi-monthly
£600
May 2010
July 2010
Sept 2010
November 2010
January 2011
March 2011
Advertising Campaign Monthly £3000
Yellow Pages advert Annual £750
Purchase of promotional January/February 2011 £2000
material
Use of independent
Throughout the year (4 @ £1500 £6,000
assessors
each)
‘Suggest the Best’ Scheme As and when (based on 7) £3500
Purchase of metal boxes for Annually £270
all newly approved carers
Purchase of first aid kits for Annually £400
all newly approved carers
TOTAL £33620
11

6.0 Action Plan
Action
When
Re-Branding of Fostering Recruitment – to include: Research to start May 2011
1.Research into success of re-branding
2. Meeting with communications team
3. Sourcing images, straplines etc
4. Consultation
5. Updating fostering information pack
6. Re-printing of all publicity material
7. Launch
Advertising in the Caerphilly Campaign
Monthly
Website updates
Monthly
Social Media Marketing Dependent on corporate IT, during 2012
Review current carers approval status with the view of Nov 2011 – April 2012
them changing to 10+. To involve:
1. Coming up with a financial reward for carers
2. Obtaining a list of all carers approved 0-10
3. Discussing possibility of 10+ with their link
worker
4. Contacting carers to find out if they are
interested
5. Drafting an agreement
Involving young people in the recruitment of foster June 2011
carers
Ordering new promotional Material Annually Feb/March 2011, 2012 and 2013
Preparing information for the Big Cheese May/June 2011, 2012 and 2013
Attending the Big Cheese
Annually last weekend in July
Arranging the distribution of posters and flyers around
the Borough
May (FCF) every year November 2011, Feb
2012, Sept 2012, Feb 2013
Billboard Advertising
May/June 2011 and October/November
Accessing and using the MOSAIC system for target
marketing
Throughout 2011 to start targeting 2012-
2013
Provide good quality training for all applicants On-going – 5 times per year
Devise a monitoring system to capture feedback at IV Summer 2011
Ensure the majority of publicity focuses on the need
for carers for children 10+
To work with SEWIC on joint recruitment initiatives
Integration of short break scheme into Family
Placement Team
On-going
On-going
Not sure of the impact this scheme will
have on the Recruitment team
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 12

7.0 Implementation, Review and Evaluation
The strategy will be implemented by the Recruitment Group, which
consists of a Service Manager, Team Manager and a number of Foster
Carers. This group meets bi-monthly, and will be monitoring the action
plan.
To ensure Caerphilly continue to recruit good quality foster carers, and
that the assessment process provides all applicants with all the
information needed to ensure they are able and capable of carrying out
the role of carer. To ensure these stages remain relevant there is
already in place:
• Evaluation following pre-approval training
• Evaluation following induction
• Face to Face interviews with the Manager following the
assessment
These evaluation stages enable the Recruitment and Assessment
Team to constantly monitor the quality and content of the assessment
process and make changes (if necessary) at any point.
Quarterly meetings are held to ‘Forecast Terminations’. This enables a
prediction of when carers may leave. This in turn, will influence the
types of suitable carers that the team need to recruit.
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 13

Appendix 1 - Flowchart showing initial enquiry process including timescales
General Enquiry
If no
contact
made by
applicant
within a
week – file
to close
If contact
cannot
me made
within 10
working
days
Letter 2
is sent
Pass enquiry to Admin
Assistant who will
undertake LA check &
send information pack
and Letter 1 within 24
hrs
Pass paperwork to
Recruitment Team who
will contact applicant to
discuss priority of age
range within 5 days of
them receiving the pack
If there are concerns
identified on SWIFT
– Information is
passed to Team
Manager / Senior
Practitioner for
decision
Family/
Friends &
Reg 38’s
When
received
pass to
Team
Manager for
allocation
IF INTERESTED
IN ONE OF 3 KEY
GROUPS
IF NOT INTERESTED
IN ONE OF 3 KEY
GROUPS
Paperwork is
passed to Senior
Practitioner to
allocate to arrange
Initial Visit within
a week
If it is proving difficult to
contact applicant, Letter 5
is sent. File to close after
a week
To be passed to
admin assistant to
send Letter 3
explaining the needs
of the service
Allocated worker to inform
admin assistant when
allocated
Once SW has made
appointment ‘Letter 4’ &
Application form to be
sent. File to be made up.
If contact is made
Admin Assistant will
close contact on
SWIFT. Place
details on waiting list
& file in waiting list
draw / A-Z.
On initial visit – applicant
should have completed
application form.
Go through initial visits as
normal, and advise of next
pre-approval. THERE
WILL NOT BE A 2 ND
INITIAL
Recruitment
VISIT
& Retention Strategy 2011-2014 14

Part 2 – Retention
1.0 Aims and Objectives 17
2.0 Current Situation 18
3.0 Future Developments 19
4.0 Review and Evaluation 20
5.0 Budget 21
6.0 Future Challenges 22
7.0 Action Plan 22
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 15

1.0 Aims and Objectives
Research undertaken by the Fostering Network and BAAF (2005) has
estimated that the cost to recruit a fostering family is approximately £11,500,
which covers advertising, training and assessing prospective applicants.
Therefore the retention of foster carers is vital not only to ensure consistent
quality care for the children and young people of Caerphilly, but to reduce the
cost implications to recruit new families.
The aims and objectives of the retention strategy are to:
• Increase the pool of foster carers which will result in the increase
of placement choice for children and young people
• Increase existing carers skills in order to improve placement
stability
Over the past 3 years Caerphilly’s Fostering Service have had between 87
and 102 general fostering families.
120
100
102
87
96
80
General Carers
60
40
20
14
25
20
Family & Friends Carers
0
2009 2010 2011
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 16

Every year the approval status of some carers is terminated for various
reasons such as retirement, health reasons of themselves or of their close
family members or following allegations. These terminations are monitored to
ensure the division is doing everything it can to retain carers. On average 10
general carers are lost every year. This is ‘natural wastage’ and needs to be
considered when setting targets.
The reason for the termination of Family and Friends carers approval status
can vary, but generally is either because the Family member obtains a Special
Guardianship Order or a Residence Order, or the child returns home, and
therefore they are no longer needed as carers.
The 3 previous years terminations are as follows:
Termination of Approval
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
14
11
12
8
3 3
2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011
Family & Friends
General Carers
Over the next 3 years the pool of carers will increase overall by the
following amounts:
• 2011-2012 increase of 30 general carers
• 2012-2013 increase of 32 general carers
• 2013-2014 increase of 34 general carers
These figures are based on the loss of 10 carers per year, with the
approvals as projected in the first part of this strategy.
Within this increase, there will be at least an increase of 5 fostering
families every year to care for children over the age of 10.
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 17

2.0 Current Situation
2.1 In line with the Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003
and the National Minimum Standards the Family Placement
Team provide the following:
• Each approved foster family to have allocated a Family
Placement support worker
• Regular support visits to be undertaken by Family Placement
worker every 4/6 weeks.
• Unannounced visit to foster carer a minimum of once a year
• Regular formal supervision of foster carers to be undertaken
every 3 months.
• Annual foster carer reviews to be completed
• Out of Hours telephone support line available for foster carers.
2.2 The team have also developed good practice initiatives which
provide additional support to fostering families which include:
• Support group for all foster carers
• Career Carer Development Groups
• Men who Care group
• Children who Care group
• Annual questionnaire sent to all carers
• Foster Carers website
• An annual Appreciation Evening for all carers
• Foster Carer profiles
• Exit interviews
• Biscuits for all fostering families at Christmas
• Summer and Winter trip/activity
• Multi-agency support which include -
o Consultation session with a Primary Mental Health
Worker
o Advice and visits from a specialist LAC nurse
o Access to education support workers for direct work
• Quarterly newsletter produced by foster carers, for foster carers
• Learning and Development opportunities
• Membership to the Fostering Network
3.0 Future Developments
3.1 There are a number of current initiatives that will be developed
further during 2011/2012. These are as follows:
• Development of an Induction training programme for foster
carers in line with draft guidance from WAG.
• Promoting Learning and Development opportunities to all carers
as well as formal training..
• Setting up and using a Foster Carer Resource Library
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 18

• Implementation and review of the Peer Mentoring Scheme for
newly approved carers.
• Review the purpose and focus of formal supervision for foster
carers.
• Introduce a Development group for all probationary and
mainstream carers to run in the day and evening.
• Improve communication with foster carers by:
o Develop a checklist for foster carers to be used when
they are approached for a placement
o Foster carer presentation to cluster group of team
managers
o The Attendance of SMT at the Men who Care and Career
Carer Development Groups.
3.2 Between 2012 and 2014, there will be future challenges and
initiatives to developing the support services and retention of
foster carers:
• Introduction of the Fostering National Minimum Allowances.
• Short Break Scheme for Children with Disabilities to be
developed and managed by the Family Placement Team, which
will increase the range of services available to families in
Caerphilly
• Development of the use of technology for example:
o The foster carers website
o E-training
o Social network sites
o Text message services
o
o
Emailing
Use of Twitter/Facebook as a forum to be used for
support
• Further development of the Children who Care group to include
training days and a reviewing of the group.
• The introduction of an opportunity for foster carers to spend a
day with a Social Worker to share experiences and hopefully to
build a better understanding of each others role.
• Enhancing the opportunities for foster carers to develop their
skills and knowledge which will include:
o
o
o
Delivering comprehensive programme of formal training
for 2012-2013, which will be run by the Learning and
Development team.
Provide a number of different learning opportunities
through a variety of method as well as ‘formal’ training
Review the development of the induction programme in
line with the Welsh Assembly Government proposals.
Consultation and partnership working with foster carers is core to the
development of all initiatives undertaken by the Family Placement
Team.
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 19

4.0 Review and Evaluation
The strategy will be reviewed annually and evaluated in the following
ways:
5.0 Budget
• Team Plans
• Service Improvement Plan
• Annual Directors Report
• Consultation with Carers
• Focus Groups
• CSSIW inspections
• DMT
Working on the basis of a budget of around £15,880, the following
recruitment activity is recommended for 2011/2012. Plans for the
subsequent years will be added annually.
Activity Frequency Cost
Men Who Care Group Monthly (cost for buffet) £750
Career Carer Development Quarterly (cost for hiring venues) £650
Groups
Children Who Care
3 Activities per year
£1300
May half term
October half term
February half term
Plus training sessions
Appreciation Evening Annually – September/October 2011 £2500
Christmas Party Annually – January 2012
£1000
Room Hire, Buffet and Disco
Trip to the Pantomime Annually – January 2012
£2000
Coach Hire & Tickets
Summer Trip Annually – August 2011
£1000
Coach Hire
Newsletter
Quarterly (design costs)
£40
June 2011
September 2011
December 2011
March 2011
LAC Achievement Awards Annual – July 2011 (based on equal £1500
contributions from health and
education)
TOTAL £10,740
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 20

It is difficult to predict expenditure for the following as the demand and
amount varies year on year, however the remaining £5140 of the
budget is allocated for the following:
Foster Carers Mileage
Claims
Childcare provision when
carers attend training
Fostering Network
Independent Support for
allegations
IT repairs for laptops
Monthly
Monthly
As and when but averages at around
£300 per time.
This is the first year that this is coming
out of the budget
6.0 Future Challenges
It is worth noting that there are some challenges that the Family
Placement Team are facing, which may have an effect on recruitment
and retention.
• The retention of foster carers is vital in order to ensure that the
overall number of carers increases to enable placement choice.
• The introduction of the Fostering National Minimum Allowance
• Developing the skills of foster carers to help them meet the more
complex needs of children placed with them and to promote
placement stability
• Staff retention to maintain a stable staff group
• Future budget constraints may pose a challenge.
7.0 Action Plan
Action
General Support Group to include:
• Arranging venues and dates for the year
• Review purpose and sustainability of the
group
Monthly
When
Career Carer Development Group – dates set for
2011. Review arrangements annually.
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Mainstream and probationary groups to include –
dates set for 2011. Review arrangements annually.
Men who Care Group to include:
Review progress of the group annually.
Dec 2011
Dec 2011
Children who Care group.
• Review proposals to extend group
May & Oct 2011 and Feb 2012
April 2011
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 21

• Book a further training events
Foster Carer library:
April/May 2011
• Raise the awareness and encourage carers to
use the library
Peer Mentoring Scheme.
• Group supervisions
• 6 monthly review the progress of the scheme Monthly
Sept 2011
Foster Carer Retention & Support Questionnaire Annual – Oct 2011
Foster Carer Website
Maintenance and Update
Updates Weekly
Review Annually
Foster Carer Appreciation Evening September 2011
Planning to start June 2011
Foster Carer Profiles
Ongoing
New carers to have profiles completed as part of the
assessment process
Exit Interviews for Foster Carers
Ongoing
Christmas Biscuits – appreciation gift for foster carers Ordered Oct 2011
Distribution Dec 2011
Summer/Winter Activity May 2011 & Oct 2011
Recruitment & Retention Strategy 2011-2014 22