Fostered children and young people to benefit from an award-winning programme

There is a shortage of foster carers (stock image)

Rochdale Borough Council is in the process of setting up an innovative programme to support foster carers, run by the UK’s leading fostering charity The Fostering Network.

The Mockingbird programme is a pioneering fostering model, which sees a group of fostering households set up in a similar structure to that of an extended family, and is based 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 here. Our fostering team is well under way 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.”

The Mockingbird programme saw off other outstanding projects to win the Big Impact Award at this year’s Third Sector Awards.

The 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 the Big Impact Award recently. 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.”

The council has also recently implemented the No Wrong Door model, an innovative 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, call 0300 303 1000 or visit rochdale.gov.uk/fostering