We are hosting an event at Mansfield Central Library on Tuesday 23 January (next week), from 1pm until 3pm.

We’ll be unveiling our gorgeous new artwork to promote fostering and 20 children from a local primary school will come along to decorate leaves to show what family means to them. These will be placed on to the wall artwork. We want to show the importance of family and ‘roots’ to promote the need for foster carers to provide safe, secure homes for vulnerable children in Nottinghamshire.

We would love to have foster carers join us at the event, so if you are available please come along!

Let us know if you're able to come along - email marketing@nottinghamshire.gov.uk.

The contact team is in need of help and support. Do you have any availability at all to support? It does not matter how little time, we are in desperate need of support care and will be able to use whatever you can offer!

If you are able to help, please contact your SSW to confirm your availability and we will be in touch to confirm reimbursement and payment details.

We are looking for fostering champions to help us recruit new foster carers for Nottinghamshire.

We already have some excellent champions, and we'd love to hear from more carers to showcase the different backgrounds, experiences and skills you all have.

You could:

• share your stories at information events for people interested in fostering
• speak to prospective carers to provide support and insight.
• join in with media events and marketing campaigns
• assist in pre and post approval events.
• be a mentor for a newly approved carer in your area.

As well as it being rewarding and beneficial to your own experience and development, you will receive sessional payments for any champion activities you do.

If you are interested in being a champion, please let your SSW know.

We shared in our last newsletter that we have five fostering family workers available to support our mainstream and friends and family carers.

Support can be given at home to families caring for children and young people aged 0-18 years.

Support varies from:

• therapeutic parenting approaches
• therapeutic play (theraplay)
• Virtual Reality experiences of a young child’s life before coming into care.

We can also advice and demonstrate activities for theraplay within our Foster Carers' Hub groups. For more information on what our fostering family workers offer, and for how to access support please see our flyer.

As the new year comes around, we are looking to recruit more foster carers.

Do you know anyone who is interested in fostering but wants to know more information?

We have a pop-up event on Thursday 29 February, 10am to 12 noon at Everyone Active Hucknall Leisure Centre.

We will be happy to answer questions and give advice on beginning the fostering journey! If you know anybody interested, please feel free to refer them to us, or even come along and say hello!

We also have virtual events online on:

• Wednesday 24 January, 6.30pm to 7.15pm Click here to join
• Wednesday 7 February, 1pm to 2pm Click here to join

Remember, if you refer a friend who goes on to foster with us, you'll receive £1,000.

Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (D2N2) local authorities are joining forces for the marketing and recruiting of new foster carers, through a pilot project funded by the Department of Education. 

This will 'go live' 1 April 2024. Part of the programme will also include the establishment of four 'Mockingbird' constellations of carers, to better support different groups of foster carers.

It is really important to us that you, as people who have been through the recruitment process and understand what support you need as foster carers, come and share your views on what works well, what encouraged you to apply (and perhaps what put you off applying!) and any helpful suggestions you have, so we can make the Hub as successful as we can.

Friday 9 February 2024, 1pm to 2.30pm at County Hall, West Bridgford, NG2 7QP (Parking is available on site.)

If you would like to come along, please let your supervising social worker know so we can pass your names on. 

The December forum was held in Derby; however, we want to hear from our carers in all four areas. You do not need to have come along to the first forum to join us in February, so don’t worry. Each event will also have a different focus, which we will email out nearer the time!

We will also be holding an online forum on Thursday 7 March, 10am to - 1.30 am (online link will be sent nearer the time) to include anyone who cannot make the physical events.

Katie Jones, D2N2 Fostering Hub Team Manager

Any Of Us...because it really could be!

That was the message of a new fostering film, Any Of Us, released last September. The film was a collaboration between 80 local authorities, part of a national project to highlight how anyone who cares has the potential to become a foster carer.

We are delighted to share that the film has recently won two awards at the Unawards, a public sector communications award recognising genuine creativity, innovation and brilliant results.