‘We’re like an extended family’ - the foster carers supporting foster carers
“We step in to support foster families as extended family members.”
Sarah and Gary Wootten have been foster carers with Wirral Council for around six years. The couple, both in their 40s, live in Eastham along with their three daughters.
They currently run a social-change marketing agency and have always fostered alongside this work. Sarah said:
I previously trained as a youth and community worker, specialising in working with young offenders and those not in employment, training or education. Gary’s background is in marketing and we both lead work in the voluntary sector.
Alongside their busy careers, they couple always felt they had more to offer. Sarah said:
Our girls were of an age where they were in school and settled and it felt like the right time to go for it. We have a house and garden with space for others to share in and our girls were very much onboard – we wouldn’t have done it without them being happy too.”
So began their journey of supporting young people in need of a loving home. Over the years, they’ve supported dozens of children and families.
In November 2024 the pair took a bold new step in becoming hub carers as part of Wirral’s first ‘constellation’ of foster care families under what’s known as the Mockingbird model. Mockingbird is an innovative programme for delivering foster care which involves foster families being part of a group of families (known as ‘satellite foster families’) to form an extended family network. This network is known as a ‘constellation’ and can accommodate up to 18 looked after children.
At the heart of a constellation is a ‘hub home’. This is where a specially recruited and trained foster carer supports all carers within the constellation by offering support, training and advice, day care, sleepovers and social activities. Sarah and Gary became this first constellation’s ‘hub carers’.
Sarah said:
We’re there to provide support for carers and children. We do that with sleepovers, playdates for children from different families, meetings in the community, trips to the zoo, going for walks, having water fights in the garden, and hot chocolates! We do social activities with both individual families as well as the whole constellation and we also hold a carers coffee morning too - sometimes at our house or out in the community.
The Mockingbird model provides foster care that is structured around the support and relationships gained from an extended family.
Sarah said:
It’s like a family. We step in to support foster families as extended family may do in other circumstances. Whether it’s covering a school drop off or pick up, attending meetings or lending an ear to help solve a problem, we’re there for the children and the carers.
“We have fun together, eat, play and share in the good times and the difficult ones together. It’s a support network really, how care should be, wrapped around the child, with them at the centre.
This approach to fostering gives children and young people a chance to build friendships with other children in care. It has been shown to decrease the disruption in children and young people’s care journey and empowers families to support each other and overcome problems before they escalate.
Sarah said:
In our constellation, we support six foster families who have been brought together with lots of thought given to the age and experiences of the children so that they can build friendships. Socialising with other looked-after children has definitely helped the children realise they are not alone in their experience of not living with their own family, breaking down the stigma they may feel about being in care.
Relationships are central to Mockingbird. The hub home carer builds strong relationships with everyone in the constellation, empowering families to support each other and overcome problems before they escalate or lead to placement breakdown, which increases protective factors around the children.
Sarah said:
Today I’m picking up a child from school as their carer has an appointment, it’s things like that. It’s a resource that they can rely on. Carers know it’s there when last minute things come up or if they’re feeling overwhelmed and children have somewhere familiar they can get excited about visiting on their own or with friends.
For Sarah, being a hub carer gives her purpose.
Sarah said:
Through Mockingbird, we’ve been able to support families through difficult times, we have also gotten to build relationships with 18 children instead of one or two.
Sarah is a huge advocate for the Mockingbird model. She’d recommend anyone to try fostering, especially if they think this support option could work for them.
Sarah said:
Fostering has been overwhelmingly positive for us - it’s made me a better parent overall as it has caused me to think more intentionally about how I parent.
You adapt your lifestyle, you open up your home to a child who has often had a difficult start. But if you can give them that space and love and nurture that’s the magic.
With Mockingbird, we’ve seen the benefits for the carers. You have a much more established support network. It can help carers be better for those children, because the carer has their own safety net too.
Interested in fostering? Wirral Council is part of Foster4, a collaborative fostering recruitment hub in the Northwest. If you’d like to find out more about fostering, visit the Foster4 website.
