A film which highlights the work of foster carers across the West Midlands has been shortlisted for a prestigious award. Truth Be Told: A Film about Fostering, produced by Spark Media, has been recognised in the Promotional Content category of the West Midlands Region Royal Television Awards. The film launched in March 2019 and is [...]
A researcher explores why Black girls and women's experience of child sexual abuse is often missed, and provides suggestions for social workers and leaders to improve practice By Jahnine Davis, consultant and PhD researcher When you try to speak out, you’re seen as aggressive or you don’t want to engage. No! It’s because I was [...]
Peter Buzzi identifies key messages for safeguarding practice from recent research by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Photo: Shintartanya/Adobestock By Dr Peter Buzzi, director of Research and Management Consultancy Centre and national research lead for the Principal Children and Families Social Worker (PCFSW) network’s online safeguarding research and practice development project The Independent Inquiry [...]
The experiences of Muslim foster carers and prospective foster carers are explored in a report launched on 25 November by leading fostering charity The Fostering Network. The Muslim Fostering Project report summarises the findings of a national programme which was led by The Fostering Network in partnership with Mercy Mission UK and funded by the [...]
On Saturday, Yvonne Worsell, a foster carer with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, was presented with The Fostering Network’s Outstanding Contribution to Foster Care Award at the annual Northern Ireland Foster Care Awards. The awards are hosted by The Fostering Network in partnership with the Regional Adoption and Fostering Service. Yvonne has been [...]
Debbie Douglas, well-known to many from The Only Way is Essex and hit podcast The Brights, has today (Monday 9 September) been awarded The Fostering Network’s President’s Award for her exceptional contribution to fostering. Debbie, along with her partner Dave Bright and her wider family, has cared for many dozens of children over the course of 25 [...]
September 2019 Achiever of the Month A big thank you to The Alex Timpson Trust for funding this project. We want to congratulate our Achiever of the Month for September. They settled in well into Year One at school and made lots of friends! Fire Training On Thursday 31st October we hosted a Fire Training event for [...]
Eleanor Smith MP visited Freedom Fostering for the second time on 12th September 2019. This is the first visit from the MP following our recent Ofsted rating of Outstanding. She congratulated us on our Ofsted success and our staff discussed with her that the rating was long overdue because of the hard work and dedication [...]
Seconding staff from the full range of children's services into integrated teams would help tackle the disjointed working at the heart of the sector's problems, argues Dr Chris Hanvey It is indisputable that children’s services face huge challenges. A report earlier this year from Parliament’s housing, communities and local government committee described children’s services in England as [...]
A young same-sex couple have described the positive impact fostering has had on their lives in a bid to inspire others to do the same. Natalie and Terri (above) fostered two sisters, aged four months and 11 years, to keep them from being separated in the care system. The married couple, from Bromley, said they [...]
