Member News: A busy January ahead for Team Fostering

By Jane Butler, Chief Executive Officer

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year!

This was my second year in post at Team Fostering, and 2018 was a busy and exciting year for the agency.

In 2018 we opened a new office in South Normanton, appointed a non-executive director with first-hand experience as a foster carer and recruited a number of new foster carers across the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. The entire agency was inspected by Ofsted with our Yorkshire and East Midlands office achieving a ‘Good’ rating with ‘Outstanding’ elements, and our North East office achieving ‘Outstanding’ in all areas. This meant our North East office has achieved an ‘Outstanding’ in Ofsted reports for over 11 years now, since their current grading system began! As always our children and young people attended some fantastic activities arranged by our Education and Support Service, and we celebrated their own achievements at our two Celebration of Achievement Awards Ceremonies. The agency launched a new psychological support service in partnership with a clinical psychologist, renewed its membership to New Family Social and celebrated our very own Douglas Shearer receiving his MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018.

This January, Team Fostering is running a campaign to showcase the not-for-profit status of the agency, with a look at how this impacts our children and young people, staff and foster carers. Some of the above achievements may not have been possible without the ethical values of the agency that ensure surplus made is reinvested into the services which are provided to foster carers and our children and young people. Our mission statement is ‘Putting Children’s Futures First,’ and we are a proud member of The Fairer Fostering Partnership, a group of agencies that each operate as charities or social enterprises to ensure that children come before profit. Over the course of the month we’ll be celebrating some of our achievements and the history of Team Fostering, speaking with those who have been at the agency since day 1 and sharing why our carers and staff value our ethical status.

If you’re considering fostering, I would recommend thinking about how working for a not-for-profit agency might be right for you. Keep your eyes peeled over the course of the month for further details and, of course, if you have any questions you can reach us on 0800 292 2003.

With very best wishes to each and every one of you for 2019!

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

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