The Rees Centre Webinar Lunchtime Series intends to focus on a broad range of questions related to the practice of care, practice in education, policy and system change. This series serves as a platform for the sharing and exchange of knowledge, catering to researchers, students, practitioners, and individuals interested in these subjects.
Foster carer retention and recruitment
Tuesday 25 June, 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Speaker: Dr Ellie Ott
Dr Ellie Ott is Associate Director at the Centre for Evidence and Implementation. She has led research to improve the lives of children and families facing adversity across academia, government, and non-profit organisations. She is also a research methodologist focused on evidence synthesis and systematic reviews, mixed-methods research, and impact evaluations.
Previously, Ellie managed research, knowledge exchange, impact evaluations, and systematic reviews around children’s social care at the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford and led the Humanitarian Evidence Programme at Oxfam. She has a DPhil from the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention at the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Ellie has been a consultant to the UN Refugee Agency and previously worked as a research analyst and Truman-Albright Fellow in the US Department of Health and Human Services, improving research on children and families.
At CEI, Ellie is based in the London office and is responsible for a portfolio of evaluation, research, and evidence synthesis projects, including those that seek to improve services and the lives of children with a social worker and separated migrant children. Her current and recent work at CEI includes leading systematic reviews on kinship support programmes (to inform the first Practice Guide), matching in foster care, and mental health services for care-experienced young people, leading the randomised controlled trial of Fostering Connections – a trauma-informed training for social workers, and being a co-investigator for Children Caring on the Move, the evaluation of the North East Fostering Support Hub, and evaluation of My View, a therapeutic service for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. She is also a foster carer and lives Oxfordshire with her family and hens.
Abstract
Globally, there is a movement to place more children in need of alternative care arrangements in foster care and family environments. Recruiting, retaining and appropriately supporting foster carers can help children in care thrive. In England, despite the growing number of children in care, the national statistics show a recent decrease in the number of approved foster carers – leading to greater challenges in matching children in care with foster carers who can meet their needs and leading to a focus in social care reform on foster carer retention and recruitment.
Dr Ott led a scoping study conducted by the Centre for Evidence and Implementation, commissioned by The Fostering Network and funded by KPMG Foundation, aiming to systematically and comprehensively understand the evidence on the national picture of recruitment and retention. This research presents a new re-analysis of the national-level English Ofsted data of all foster carers, a re-analysis of the Fostering Network’s 2022 State of the Nation survey on foster carers and fostering services (the largest survey of English foster carers), a new survey 2023 of over 1,000+ foster carers in England, and individual and group interviews with prospective foster carers, current foster carers, and previous foster carers. In doing so, the research highlights surprising trends in the trajectory of foster carers by age and ethnicity and gaps in the national data about why enquiries don’t lead to applications and applications don’t lead to approved foster carers. Throughout the research, an emphasis is placed on equity to understand how prospective foster carers’ trajectories differ by characteristics and intersect with stigma, discrimination and social inequalities.
The research challenges a focus on ‘recruitment’ and ‘the foster carer market’ to think about perspectives on what we can learn from the foster carers who stay, the quality of care, and on retention. The research also presents systematically what foster carers think would improve retention and recruitment. It proposes next steps for data in England and for future research on foster carer retention and recruitment, with implications for thinking about foster carer retention and recruitment within and across countries.
Watch the webinar recording
Download the slides
Research into action: The story of the New Belongings Programme
Tuesday 21 May, 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Speaker: Dr Claire Baker
For nearly 25 years, Dr Claire Baker has specialised in research focusing on the experiences and outcomes for young people in and leaving care. Over this time Claire has worked in both academic and senior policy roles influencing the legislative and policy context and advancing research knowledge. Claire has published nationally and internationally as well as creating tools for practice.
Abstract
New Belongings is a Programme that works with local authorities to help them improve their services for care leavers with care leavers. In this seminar Claire will describe the key components of the approach, the key tools used and share examples of how authorities co-produced changes to their services based on what young people said was important to them. She will reflect on the findings from her evaluation and how these supported the development of the Programme.
