Voices of Fostering

Sarah - The Journey and Role of a Carer Recruitment Officer!

• National Fostering Group • Season 3 • Episode 14

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In this episode of Voices of Fostering, Helen interviews Sarah, a Carer Recruitment Officer, to shed light on the process of becoming a foster carer. Sarah explains her role in guiding applicants through the four-to-six-month journey, from initial contact to approval by a panel. She discusses common misconceptions about fostering, the importance of diverse backgrounds, and the comprehensive support systems in place for foster carers. Sarah also shares her personal experience of transitioning from cabin crew to fostering, emphasising the life-changing impact of fostering on children and young people.

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Helen:

Hello and welcome to this episode of Voices of Fostering. Now, if you apply to be a foster carer, you will meet so many people along your journey, and one of those people will be a lovely carer recruitment officer. And one of those lovely carer recruitment officers is the lady who's about to join me now. Hello, Sarah. Hello, Helen. Thank you for having me.

Sarah:

It's really nice to be here

Helen:

aw , welcome. Thank you so much for coming on. Um, so yeah, you're one of the integrable, integral parts of the start of a foster carer's journey, aren't you? So tell us about what a carer recruitment officer does.

Sarah:

So, Helen, my role basically is to guide anybody that's interested in fostering through the process of becoming a foster carer. Um, so you would make your initial contact with us, um, by any of the agencies through the National Fostering Group, obviously. And you'll be guided by the staff there through to one of me, basically. There's 36 of us across the, um, the country and into the UK and, and in Ireland as well. Um, and the process really takes about four to six months. So I'll be there the whole time to hold your hand and guide you through at your pace. Um, so what the process basically is, you would show your, um, interest in finding out a bit more about fostering. Sometimes, Helen, I speak to people for sort of two or three months, sometimes longer, before we even sort of progress them through to the next stages, just because there are lots of questions that people are wanting to ask and lots of information that they would like to find out. So we, um, do a bit of a face to face call, similar to this really, we have a bit of a chat, and then I would come out to your house, Fill in a bit of a questionnaire, if you like. That's probably easiest way to, to sort of describe it. So you'll be telling me all about your previous life histories, your family, um, any children that you might have, any previous roles you've had where you've worked with children. Um, and just getting a really good overview of you and your family life, um, I'm ideally looking to do is get a really good overview of you so that we can place children with you so that they will fit in with your family and can fit in with your hobbies and interests and all of that really, Helen, to be honest with you. So once we've came, come out and done, um, our chit chat with you and had a look around the home, when I come, I'm not looking to see if your house is spotlessly tidy. I want to see how you live. Um, how you live on the day to day, and I'm really just looking for the space that you've got available. Um, whether we could place a sibling group with you, whether it would just be a single child or young person that would be staying with you. Um, so they're the things that I'm looking for. I think people lay out their best china and their best biscuits thinking that here she is, she's coming to us, to look at us, and I'm really not. I'm just coming to find out about you. Um, so once you've had your home visit, then I would. invite you to apply formally, that's done online, and I sort of, I'm your worst best friend because I'm constantly with you until that point, and then we invite you to apply, and I sort of drop off into the background a little bit, and I'll perhaps call you once or twice a month just to see how everything's progressing. The process at the moment takes around four to six months, um, so in that time we would then hand you over to our lovely assessment team and you'd be allocated your very own assessor. They come out to you and they'll do a mixture of visits with you, so that would be both face to face and virtual. Um, they'll speak to yourselves, they'll speak to family members, any birth children you've got in an age appropriate way. So everybody's spoken to and the end game really is to get you to panel which is like your job interview if you like. So panel is usually for us face to face in one of our local offices. So you'll come along, um, we make you comfortable, you get cups of tea, and we look after you until you go into panel. You then chat to the panel members. There's no trick questions or anything like that. They're asking you about the information that you've already provided. And then, hopefully, you'll be approved as foster carers, and that's when I pop back up again. And then there's two parts to my role. So, once I've rec gotten people into into the process of becoming a foster carer. When you actually are a foster carer then we do all the lovely things. We arrange lots of days out for our foster carers and children. Um, we have afternoon teas. This morning I've been for coffee and cake with some carers. We have breakfasts. We do tend to eat a lot across the Midlands. I'm based in the Midlands and we do tend to eat a lot of coffee, cake, breakfast, afternoon teas. Um, but then we also do some lovely days out. We do walking with llamas, um, and my role tends to concentrate on the foster carers and we have other people within the area and within the agencies that concentrate on the children as well. So we have family support workers or your, uh, supervising social workers, but my role is purely to look after carers. In a nutshell.

Helen:

Yeah. So Sarah, you've been doing this role for six years. Is that right? I

Sarah:

have. Yeah. Yeah. It was my anniversary on Tuesday.

Helen:

So

Sarah:

six years on a Tuesday. Happy anniversary.

Helen:

So what was it that led you to it, Sarah? What attracted you to working in fostering?

Sarah:

So Helen, I'm not from a social care background at all. Um, I had been cabin crew for quite a few years and, um, taken redundancy. Decided that I wanted a complete career change and my forte really is I'm quite a people person. I enjoy talking to people. I can imagine you as

Helen (2):

cabin crew so easily, like, oh wow, yeah, you would have been an amazing stewardess. A long, long time ago, you know,

Sarah:

a long time ago. Um, and I just thought I wanted to keep up my customer experience skills, to be honest with you. And I saw this role advertised and I was quite being nosy, quite inquisitive. So I just, um, inquired about it, found out a bit more information. I just thought, God, that sounds so interesting. One, you've got the social aspect where you're, you're meeting people and chatting to people and that is properly up my street. And also there's the aspect of helping and supporting and guiding out those children and young people. Um, that just need to start really. So the whole package to me was just amazing. I just thought that's exactly what I want to do. And to be fair, you just said I have been here for six years and it feels like six weeks, honestly, my day is speed by so quickly. And you would never think that I've been here for over half a decade, to be honest with you, because things just. Yeah, it just flies by. It really does. And we just have so much fun.

Helen:

It's such a lovely role. Yeah. So across those six years, you must have, you know, met some interesting people, some interesting families, um, had some, um, you know, quite considerable things happen, you know, are there, are there any, Any people or situations that really stand out to you that you think, wow, you know, we really made a difference there.

Sarah:

Do you know what, Helen? I think I would be giving everybody, um, an injustice if I said that there was one particular family or one particular person. Um, because every single person that I meet, obviously everybody is so different, but everybody just brings something different to foster in and that's exactly what we need. We need a whole variety of people for a whole variety of children and young people. Um, And actually, I think it would be really boring if we just have one particular type of person. I think it would just be really boring. We just, everybody I speak to just really intrigues me, and I like to find out their stories and find out more. And actually, in the back of my mind, when I'm chatting to people, I'm thinking, oh, where could I look at fitting you in? Could you take sibling children? Could you take a teenager maybe that needs some support? Um, and I think for me, it's the people that, perhaps speak to me at a coffee morning or something like that and we're face to face and I say, Oh, I'd really like to foster may not have had any thought about it, but I'd really like to foster, but you probably wouldn't want me because I've got a criminal record or you perhaps wouldn't want me because I don't own my own home. And actually I don't think people realize that there are few barriers to fostering. I mean, most people could come into fostering and. Even not as a foster carer, there are so many different ways that people can support fostering, um, away from actually having children and young people living in the home. Um, so yeah, I can't say there's just one particular person that has really stood out to me, because I think all of our foster carers are heroes, to be honest with you. I just think they're amazing. Um, yeah, and it

Helen:

does take a special You just touched there, Sarah, on misconceptions, basically, didn't you? You know, like, the reasons why people think they can't foster. And what are some of the biggest ones that you come across where people can't think they can't foster? You know, maybe as simple as having a dog.

Sarah:

Exactly. Yeah. So I have been to foster families once they've got their children in place and I've seen the children laying on the floor chatting away to budge the dog and telling them all their secrets and it's just heartwarming. So lovely to see. Um, we actually work in conjunction with the Blue Cross as well, um, which is just an amazing affinity link. Um, we do lots of training with them and they've got pet assessors that can come out and speak to foster families, that kind of thing. So of course we want you to be able to have pets. Um, a lot of people say to me, I'm single or I'm, um, divorced. I've been widowed. I'm in a same sex relationship. Would that count against me? Definitely not. No, as I said previously, we need a whole host of people to come and support and love and nurture and look after a whole host of children and young people that we get referred to us from sort of all of the local authorities across the UK. So that's quite a big misconception, um, about the relationships. Also people think you have to own your own home. Um, you really don't. You can be in private rented accommodation, local authority rented accommodation. If you own your home, own a home, then that's great. Um, if you are in a rented accommodation, then we would just need permission from the landlord, be that local authority or, or your private landlord. Uh, but that's just generally in writing some sort of, um, written communication to say that, yeah, that's absolutely great and of course you can foster. Um, I think age is a huge barrier as well. Um, a lot of people I speak to, if I'm in the shopping centres, well, no, I'm too old, you wouldn't want me. We actually have long service awards and some of our foster carers have been fostering for up to 25 years this year. Um, so there really is no age barrier. You're never too old. You've got a whole host of experience that you can bring to fostering. Um, there is a minimum age of 21. Um, so your minimum age does need to be 21, but again, you can be single. Married. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. What I would urge people to do is just pick up the phone and speak to us because what you may think is a barrier likely isn't to be on this video. And there's definitely no upper age limit. Yeah,

Helen:

carers on the podcast from twenties right the way through to seventies. So, you know, it is really a, a really wide spectrum. Something else that people might think would rule them out of fostering might be if they've had health problems or mental health problems, we know what's the situation with that.

Sarah:

Every single person is looked at individually. So again, no barriers. I mean, um, I speak to people on a daily basis. I'm speaking to people constantly. And lots and lots of people have sort of hidden disabilities that they're not even, you wouldn't be aware of to see and they think that could be a barrier. But what we would do, as part of the assessment process, we do take, um, GP references. So you give us permission for all of the references that we would take at the early stages. Um, and quite often the assessor who's sort of trained to get you through the process would be able to sort of guide you through with any health issues that you've got, any mental health issues. I speak to quite a few people that take antidepressants. Um, I think especially after COVID, I think a lot of people's mental health really, really was affected. Um, and I found there's a huge amount of people that do take sort of, um, some kind of aid for their mental health. And again, that wouldn't rule you out. Um, that's part of life and that's what we're looking for. We're looking for foster carers. From all different backgrounds. So, and your experiences actually would really support a child or young person that could be going through those same things that either you've been through or you've got experience of. So really, no, please just speak to us. That's what I would just always say to everybody, speak to us. And we're very nonjudgmental. I mean, I speak to so many people that have got. So many different stories to tell me. You're probably telling me something that I've probably heard 20 times in the last month. So yeah, it is nothing unusual. It's a bit like when you go to the doctors and it's something a bit embarrassing and you think, Oh, I don't want to tell them that. And they've seen it a billion times. They've seen it a million times. It's a bit like that with me.

Helen (2):

Yeah. So I suppose it's

Helen:

all about Yeah, it's about just having that conversation really, isn't it? And just reaching out and something interesting that you said earlier on, I actually spoke to on the podcast recently to somebody else about was that you, when you make that initial contact, it doesn't mean that it's all going to happen really quickly. You know, you can be chatting to somebody for months, can't you? Until it actually comes to fruition at the right time.

Sarah:

Definitely. So my big thing is that we'll go at your pace. So some people speak to me and they can't wait. They're raring to go. Can't wait to get started. They've done loads of research, maybe spoken to people that foster already. Um, I'm really are excited to get on and get into the swing of things. Um, as I say, the process does take about four to six months regardless of your own excitement. Um, but then other people are slow burners. So, I've spoken to people, as you say, sort of 12, 18 months, um, and they're just coming into the assessment process now. So even if you decided to make that initial inquiry with me, we chatted for a bit now and then you thought, actually Sarah, not quite for me at the moment, I'm still working or my job doesn't quite accommodate fostering, um. Then that's fine. We can keep in touch if you want to meet for a coffee in six months time, or I can book in a diary call to give you a call after Christmas or into the new year. Um, literally we work at your pace. There really isn't a rush to get you through to panel at all. It is a life changing experience fostering. So we want to work with you. you to make sure it's the right time for you. Yeah.

Helen:

And you just said there about working. I think some people think that you can't work and foster. What's the situation with that? You know, if you did have a career that you loved and you wanted to keep that as well, is that possible?

Sarah:

Of course, as long as you've got flexibility within your working day. Um, more and more companies now are becoming fostering friendly, um, that's another sort of side to the things that I do. We can actually come in and speak to HR departments, um, and help you support a fostering friendly policy for your HR, uh, department. So lots and lots of companies now are becoming more aware of the need for foster carers and to be fostering friendly. So as long as you've got flexibility within your role, um, some people as well, they are very lucky whereby they've got the, um, availability that they can foster full time and then when that child moves on or goes back to mum and dad, um, or family members, they can actually pick up some bank work. So if you worked in, I don't know, if you were a nurse for instance or somebody within a healthcare facility, you You could register with an agency and do some bank work. The same with teachers. We have, um, people that have been teachers and they just do some respite care with us, which is occasional fostering if you like. And because they're 13, 15 weeks off each year, they've got good availability at weekends as well. So of course you can still work. We don't want you to stop your life completely to just devote your life to being a foster carer. If that's what you want to do, then amazing. And we offer support and financial support to help you with that. But likewise, I suppose a bit like becoming a birth parent, for me, when I had my children, it would have been the worst thing in the world to have just stopped work completely. I would have been mind numbingly bored. Um, as much as I love my children and love my nieces and nephews that I support and friends with children, I would still want to be me and still have my role. Um, but then I've got friends who, are fostering and absolutely love just being foster carers. So again, it depends on you. Everybody's different and it's no one size fits

Helen:

all. Yeah, definitely. So

Sarah:

we go with what you want. You

Helen:

have that initial conversation. Uh, when you're ready, you go for assessment. As you say, assessment can be four to six months. Do you then get a child or a young person straight away or does it sometimes take a little bit of time?

Sarah:

It sometimes takes a bit of time because we, especially in the Midlands, we get a huge amount of referrals on a monthly basis. So, um, On last count, I think we were getting between 700 and 800 referrals in a month across the Midlands. Um, and that was for sibling groups generally of babies and toddlers. So we're looking for sort of sibling groups and of course you want to keep siblings together. Um, but then of course we get referrals for a teenager or a sort of a single, a single child to call young person to come and stay with you. Um, and what happens is they go through to the referrals, come through to our placements team. The placement team then look at all of the available foster carers in the area. They would give you a call, so for us it's Jodie, Paul and Jake. One of those three would give you a call, give you as much information as they know about the child or the young person, um, babies sometimes that they would like to come and stay with you. And from there you then decide, yes please, we'd like to be considered. and then it's the placement team that would be speaking to you. So some people wait for a few weeks. I've known it. Some people have sort of been at panel, had a couple of weeks, and then they've got a sibling group with them. So it really depends on one, what you're approved for at panel. I'm saying sibling groups as if anything. Everybody's going to be getting all of these children coming to stay with them. Somebody may just have one spare room and just like to support one child. So it really depends on what you're approved for a panel really. Um, uh, and sort of working closely with the placements team and they are lovely and helpful and want to find out about you. And again, as I say, we want best fit for our children and young people and

Helen:

yourselves. And then I think it's important to, to remember that you're not just on your own then, like the support is ongoing, isn't it? There's always somebody there to help, isn't there?

Sarah:

There really is. So you are allocated your supervising social worker. So your social worker is from the agency that you decide to come on board with and then your child's social worker will be from the local authority and you all work together for best outcomes for those children. Um, so you've got your supervising social worker and they come along, they do weekly phone calls, monthly visits with you. Um, but of course there's all the activities that we put on as well. So the social workers come along to those as well. So you, you can come to any of those. We have our family support workers that would support you. Um, they again do lots of events and are on hand with their own specialist training. So if you come across a behaviour, for instance, that you may not have come across before, maybe with your own children or children that you may have worked with. Um, I think, well I'm not quite sure about this, speak to your supervising social worker because we can put training in place for you, we can put you in touch, some agencies have help in hand, other agencies have a buddy system and they're experienced foster carers that we can power you up with if you like, um, and when you come to, we have support groups every other month, so you can come to the support groups and you'll get to know other foster carers. Um, you become friends with those people as well. So you tend to find that our foster carers will meet up as well with their children together. They might go to a soft play or, um, we also found actually within our agency, there was a need. We have quite a few babies that are placed with us and baby and toddler groups because A lot of the information that you're party to when you have foster children is confidential. Some of our carers didn't feel comfortable going to a regular baby and toddler group, you know, sort of in the church halls, that kind of thing, because you inevitably get the questions asked, oh, how old's your baby, da, da, da, da. So actually we've got, um, a really lovely space in one of our offices. And we've been able to create our own baby and toddler group, so it's the first Thursday of every month. Um, and it's like minded foster carers and it's a really good opportunity for our foster carers to relax, have a coffee and actually be able to speak freely because you're in a safe space. So yeah, Helen, there's so much support that we can offer to you. Even down to, we even do a menopause group and a men who foster group. Um, we've got wreath making coming up to Christmas. So we'll all be making our dory. So that's a regular feature that we do. Um, we had treat, there was a trick or treat trial on the high street that we're based on and we had children dressing up and joining that and we all went along trick or treating to all of the different shops. So anything that you know about, tell, tell the me about in your agency because we love to get involved. Yeah, there's, there's a real

Helen:

community, isn't there? When you become a foster carer.

Sarah:

Definitely. Yeah. There really is, really is. And even today, I mean, one of the ladies, she's been fostering for 15 years that I was having a coffee with earlier. There were about 10 of us. And she said, I'm really, she's, she's leaving fostering for her own reasons. And as I say, she's fostered for a long time. She's coming to retirement. And she said to me, I really still want to be involved. Should I know that come at the end of December, I'm just going to miss fostering so much. And actually we have an alumni group, but if you have been fostering, you can actually stay in touch with us and we can meet up and of course you're welcome to come to the events and things that we do. But actually, you could still spread the word about your own experiences of fostering, and try and encourage new people to come into fostering, even though you're not fostering with us now. So, um, I'm sure she won't mind me saying, but I've signed her up for that today. So in January, once she's retired, we're going to meet up and, and get that in place for her, and we'll give her all the goods that she needs. Again, it's just a really nice way of staying in contact. And, It's a bit like leaving a job that you don't actually really want to leave, but it's time to, if that makes sense, just because of our circumstances, but she'll stay in contact anyway. So that's fab. So there's, there's just so many ways. And I think a lot of people say to me, Oh, well, I can't foster at the moment. I've, I haven't got a spare room or, um, I'm just not in a position. I can't leave work. Honestly, Helen, there's so many ways that you can get involved. Um, you can contact the agencies and we can come along. We could, if you go to, for instance, Women's Institute, or there are any. Um, groups that you attend with your children or workplaces, we can deliver sort of short visual, um, informations to you just to spread the word about fostering really. That's really ideally what we're looking to do. Um, it doesn't need to be about necessarily becoming a foster carer. Um, we've got our Facebook and Instagram pages and X, so you can like all of those. I believe they are at NFG underscore fostering, if I'm, if that serves me correctly. I'm sure you can correct me if not. I think that's, I think that's where it is. We can offer free bespoke training so I can deliver a short virtual or face to face training session. And that's all about the role of fostering within our communities. It's all about why children come into care and some of the ways that we can all support vulnerable children and young people in our day to day lives. Um, of course the content of every course that we do would be specified, um, especially for your audience. Likewise, we can host a community talk, so I can come to your community group and talk to you about fostering. There's loads of opportunity for people to ask questions and learn about, sort of, the important role that foster carers play, um, really in enriching the lives of our children and young people. Um, and as I did touch on earlier as well, we can create a fostering friendly workplace, so you can become a recognised fostering friendly employer. Um, supporting colleagues who may already foster or would like to foster. And we can put that in place for you with like a fostering friendly HR policy. Um, and of course we need you. We want you to become foster carers as well. So that would be amazing. But please don't think if you're just listening to this. Oh, I can only. support fostering by becoming a carer. There's so many ways, there really are. Oh, well, thank you

Helen:

so, so much for speaking to us today, Sarah. You've given us so much information and education there. So just to sum up, if anyone was listening and they were thinking about becoming a foster carer or, or getting involved in fostering in general, as you say, in one of those other ways, you know, how important is fostering? What, what difference does it really make to these children's and young people's lives? I would say that becoming a foster

Sarah:

carer or supporting fostering is just life changing for our children and young people. Honestly, there are The smallest things that you can do, which are such a huge thing in the lives of our children and young people. So something that may be something that you do on a daily basis. It could be giving somebody a smile, a kind word to somebody. These are things that mean so much to our children and young people because they may not have had that in their lives. Um, and just have that familiarity, that routine in their lives. That constant, that love and knowing that they've got that support and they can come and speak to you about things that perhaps they've been bottling up for a lot of years and a long, long time would just make such a difference. It really would. And just the smallest, smallest thing. You never know the difference that you make. I always think, and it doesn't matter if it's just a smile to somebody, even just on the street. If you're walking down the street and you give somebody a smile, You don't know how bad their day's been, and it's much like that with their foster children and young people. Oh, Sarah. So, give a smile and just contact us. That's all I'm asking you

Helen:

to do. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sarah. One of our lovely carer recruitment officers. You get in touch with us, you will speak to somebody lovely like Sarah, and she will help you on your journey. So, thank you so, so much, Sarah. Thanks, Helen. Take care. See you soon. so much for joining us for another episode of Voices of Fostering. If you'd like to get involved in the conversation, we would love to hear your questions. Maybe there's something you'd really like to ask about fostering, get in touch. You can email us on podcast at nfa. co. uk.