Hopwood & Heywood Dec 2020

Fostered children and young people
to benefit from an award-winning
programme
Rochdale Borough Council is implementing the innovative Mockingbird
programme, run by the UK’s leading fostering charity the Fostering Network.
The programme has seen off other outstanding projects to win the Big Impact Award at
this year’s Third Sector Awards.
Mockingbird is a pioneering fostering model, which sees a constellation of fostering
households set up in a similar structure to that of an extended family, and is predicated on
the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. The model is being introduced in Rochdale
to further support children and young people in care as well as foster carers.
Its success is seen in preventing relationship breakdowns in fostering households and
retaining foster carers who may otherwise have left the role. Where the model has already
been implemented it has helped local authority fostering services nationally avoid costs of
around £3million in under two years.
Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services,
said: “We are very excited to bring the Mockingbird programme to
Rochdale. Our fostering team are well underway with setting it up
and it should be a real support and benefit to our foster carers and
result in positive outcomes for children on our care, which is always
our aim. We’re always tremendously grateful to our foster carers
for all they do and we’re delighted to work closely with them on
implementing Mockingbird.”
This extended family model provides a high level of stability to
children and young people and strengthens relationships between
all members of the constellations, including birth families and social
workers.
The Fostering Network’s Head of the Mockingbird programme, Lily Stevens, said: “We
are delighted to have won in this category. It is testament to the faith of our funders and
partners in a compassionate, sustainable, new way of delivering foster care. It is also
speaks volumes about the efforts of everyone involved in the programme.”
Mockingbird is not the only innovative project the council is part of that supports
positive outcomes for children in care, or on the edge of care. The council has recently
implemented the No Wrong Door model, a multi-agency approach based around a
residential hub to provide care and outreach support for young people aged nine and
above. It sees social workers work collaboratively with health and police colleagues as well
as foster carers. It aims to support young people to move into a family setting giving them
support and a true sense of permanence to improve their outcomes.
There is a need for foster carer roles in both the Mockingbird and the No Wrong Door
models which the council is keen to recruit to.
Full training and support is provided the council’s locally based social
work teams, if you’re interested in any form of fostering that the
council offers then please contact foster@rochdale.gov.uk /
0300 303 1000 / rochdale.gov.uk/fostering
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