Eight local authorities in Cheshire and Merseyside have come together to work on a project aimed at transforming fostering recruitment and retention in the region. Liverpool City Council will be part of the initiative, which will run for two years, alongside Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Wirral, Halton, Warrington, St Helens, and Knowsley. The programme will provide funding of more than £1m for new recruitment initiatives and an extended version of the Mockingbird project, which already provides foster carers with significant support in order to better retain them.
One of the key focuses of the funding will be a new iteration of the Foster4 Recruitment Hub, which will receive more than £1m in funds and launch in April 2022. The Hub will provide all of the consortium’s local authorities with a more cohesive approach to foster carer recruitment, as well as more support to new recruits once they have signed up. Improving the attractiveness and supportiveness of the foster carer offer is seen as particularly crucial to the programme’s success in boosting recruitment and retention.
Councillor Liz Parsons, who is Liverpool’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Services, stated that recruiting more foster carers and giving them as much support as possible was a top priority. She noted that working “together with other local authorities on a regional basis” was an essential means of achieving this goal. Warrington Borough Council will be the primary organiser for the program and will draw on past experience to support and embed the extended Mockingbird project.
The regional recruitment campaign that is being supported by the funding will likely focus on how foster caring can affect children’s lives and deliver short films about the foster care experience. To find out more about fostering for Liverpool City Council, prospective carers can visit fostering.liverpool.gov.uk
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