Funding boost for fostering across Cheshire and Merseyside
Eight north west local authorities have secured over £2.3million in Department for Education (DfE) funding to transform fostering recruitment and retention across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Wirral will be working with Warrington who will be leading on the project, as well as Liverpool, Knowsley, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and St Helens, to deliver the programme over two years.
Over £1million of the funding will go towards delivering a new, larger and improved Foster4 Recruitment Hub, which will launch in April 2024. Foster4 is a pioneering foster carer recruitment service based at Warrington Borough Council’s offices, a collaborative project, recruiting foster carers on behalf of three Cheshire Local Authorities: Cheshire West and Chester Council, Halton Borough Council and Warrington Borough Council.
Cllr Sue Powell-Wilde, Chair of Children, Young People and Education Committee for Wirral Council, said:
By pooling resources the hub aims to recruit even more foster carers, provide even greater support to existing foster carers, and ultimately keep more local children with local foster carers.
The improved hub will help all councils in the consortium to deliver a more joined up approach to foster care recruitment and provide an offer that is attractive and supportive to prospective carers.
The remaining £1million funding will go towards the Mockingbird programme – which is a highly successful model that supports and retains foster carers.
Funding has also been awarded for a regional recruitment campaign following the re-launch of the extended Foster4 Hub, where the eight partner councils across Cheshire and Merseyside, will promote the new and improved offer that will attract and support foster carers for years to come.
In the meantime, to find out more about becoming a foster carer, please visit https://wirralfostering.org/ or call us on 0151 666 4616
