Sunderland hosts pioneering foster care initiative to tackle carer shortages

Children’s Minister Claire Coutinho, yesterday (May 25) visited foster carers and children in the city as part of a flagship initiative to recruit more people to offer a safe and secure home for children in care.

It’s a situation particularly pertinent to the region which has seen a decrease in people applying to become foster carers at a time when the number of children needing homes has increased.

As part of the Government’s Mockingbird programme, the region, including Sunderland, is receiving £3m to create foster care hubs which offer a spaces for local people to learn about the benefits of fostering and receive the support they need to become a foster carer. 

The hubs will help streamline the enquiry to application process, making it quicker and simpler to recruit foster carers and to reduce the likelihood of potential carers dropping out along the way.

The Mockingbird programme also gives foster carers the opportunity to meet up, enabling carers to work with each other to provide support, share tips, advice and caring duties, and to offer short breaks to each other when caring for foster children.

A key aim is to also build relationships between fostered children, through bonding over shared experiences including sleepovers, planned group activities and short breaks. 

After meeting with foster families on the pioneering project in Sunderland, Ms Coutinho said: “Foster carers across the country are invaluable and it’s so vital these support networks are available, which is why we’ll be looking at how we can share the great work they’ve done in the North East across the country. 

“We’ll be putting even more support into fostering as we deliver our children’s social care strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’.

"The North East Mockingbird constellations are incredibly inspiring and I’m honoured to have been invited to visit one of their homes. They’ve created a safe space full of love and advice to get the best out of their fostering experiences and to help nurture the children they’re looking after.”

The North East project aims to improve recruitment and retention of foster carers in response to rising numbers of children in care since 2011, combined with a decline in the number of foster carers since 2018.

This issue is particularly pronounced in the North East, which continues to report the highest rate of referrals to children’s social care of any region. Last year more foster households de-registered in the region than were approved.

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Jill Colbert, Director of Children's Services and Chief Executive for Together for Children Sunderland, said: “The Government’s investment in foster care in the North East is a pivotal time for us as we are set to launch the regional recruitment and retention campaign on behalf of our neighbouring local authorities in the coming months.

“We warmly welcome Claire Coutinho to the North East to hear all about our recruitment plans, to meet local teams from across the region, and to meet some of the foster carers who are already part of our successful Mockingbird Programme and who make such a positive difference to children, young people and their families in the North East.”

The Government hopes to create a number of regional hubs and to replicate the flagship programme across the UK, including an advertising campaign to attract more foster carers.