Brighter Futures for Children is an independent, not-for-profit-company, wholly owned by Reading Borough Council. Our responsibility is to deliver quality children’s services, early help, education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services in the borough.

Brighter Futures for Children’s fostering services are provided through our Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) which sits alongside our in-house Adoption and Permanence Service. The IFA is headed up by a registered manager who reports to the head of service for corporate parenting (the responsible individual), or, in their absence, to Brighter Futures for Children’s service manager for corporate parenting.

Our IFA is also part of the government-led Local Authority Fostering South East (LAFSE) initiative in relation to foster carer recruitment and retention. We are one of the 20 local authority fostering services that make up the South East regional group. The group has four sub-clusters and we are working closely with the other local authorities within our sub-cluster: Oxfordshire, West Berkshire, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead and Milton Keynes to improve the recruitment and retention of foster carers across the South East region.

In line with the Government’s agenda to improve local authority fostering services, Brighter Futures for Children has also committed to establishing our first foster carer support hub, based on the Fostering Network Mockingbird Family Model. This is a new initiative, and we are keen to recruit a Hub home carer to work with key staff and managers within the IFA to establish the model and monitor its effectiveness as a way of supporting our in-house IFA carers.

Mockingbird is a global award-winning programme led by The Fostering Network in the UK. It delivers sustainable foster care using an evidence-based model structured around the support and relationships an extended family provides. The model nurtures the relationships between children, young people and foster families supporting them to build a resilient and caring community. Led by a Hub home carer and liaison worker, the constellation community offers vital peer support and guidance alongside social activities and sleepovers to strengthen relationships and permanence. The Mockingbird programme is an alternative method of delivering foster care which centres on the idea of an extended network of family support. It empowers families to support each other and overcome problems before they escalate and offers children a more positive experience of care. To find out about the national programme visit www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/mockingbird.

Being a Hub home carer is a full-time role for experienced foster carers. To be eligible to apply for our Hub home carer role, you must:

• ideally have a minimum of three years’ fostering experience, including experience of short-term fostering (experience of caring for a range of different children and young people, including those with special needs, is highly desirable but not essential)
• have completed your preparation training, post approval induction period, and the national training support and development standards
• live in or local to the borough of Reading
• be a car driver with access to a car
• have two empty beds for planned and emergency sleepovers for children and young people. (While a Hub home carer will need to have at least one spare bedroom, the second bed can be a put-you-up that can be used by a child or young person in a living room or dining room in the case of a sleep-over being required in an emergency.)

As a Hub home carer, you will:

• offer planned and emergency sleepovers for children and young people living in the constellation
• support and mentor satellite families
• plan and host regular social events for all the families in the constellation including meetings, social get-togethers, training and support sessions, and activities for children and young people, to enable the community to develop
• host and support contact with siblings and birth families
• attend and coordinate training for carers in the constellation
• work with the liaison worker to support learning and development opportunities for satellite carers and to offer support and guidance to carer households.

This role is paid through a combination of a fostering reward and allowances:

• The foster carer’s reward is paid at £600 per week. This includes providing up to 10 sleep-over nights a month and mileage of up to 200 miles a month
• For each additional sleep-over night (above the 10 a month) an additional rate will be paid at £65 per night
• After the first 200 miles per month, excess mileage payment will be paid at 45 pence per mile
• An allowance of up to £150 per month to cover costs of arranging / hosting social events will also be paid.

The role is home-based, but providing support to a group of specified carers living in or local to Reading.