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Adopted project
3 May 2020 — adopted June 2020 • completed December 2020

Fostering Hope — Improving outcomes for parents in the UK social care system by promoting excellence in parent-and-child social care

The use of parent and child foster carers, where foster parents support both a parent and child together, has grown in recent years. These settings support either teenagers already in foster care who become pregnant, or parents in the community who require an assessment to inform a family court decision on their capacity for ‘good enough parenting’.

A review published in 2014 examined a wide range of parent-and-child (PAC) fostering schemes in the UK and internationally. Its recommendations for policy and practice include:

“Providing more specialist parent-and-child placements with dedicated training and support facilitating greater peer support, both for specialist carers providing parent-and-child placements and for the parents themselves.”

Background

The Fostering Hope project began as a qualitative study into the training and peer support opportunities for parent-and-child foster carers, with the aim of developing appropriate online resources. This initial study was previously adopted by CLAHRC South London.

The outputs were a dedicated learning website, www.fosteringhope.co.uk, and a linked closed Facebook group. The current phase evaluated the impact of these resources and added new content through an iterative, co-production process.

Project aims

To evaluate the impact of the Fostering Hope learning website and its linked closed Facebook group, and to add new content as an iterative process of development and improvement.

How the research was carried out

Launch event

An event to launch the website and Facebook group, raise the profile of the role of parent-and-child foster carers, and share recommendations for best practice with other professionals and local authorities.

Evaluation of resources

Evaluation of the website and closed Facebook group using surveys, online interviews, and a website feedback facility. Information used in an iterative process of content development. User feedback highly valued vlogs by foster carers, subject specialists and a parent, leading to further content additions developed through co-production.

The process was written up in a final project evaluation, available as a downloadable report (see resources below).

Our collaborators

The research team worked collaboratively with a wide range of partners:

Foster carers • Social workers • Health professionals (specialist midwives and health visitors) • Local authorities • Independent fostering providers • CoramBAAF • The Fostering Network • Parents with experience of being fostered with a child

How the public were involved in the research

Public involvement was central to the project throughout:

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For the initial phase, foster carers from around the country were drawn from study participants and those who had shown interest but were unable to participate, to form a user advisory group

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Content was reviewed and contributions made by carers with particular interests; some carers and a parent contributed vlogs to the website

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Several professionals with expertise in different areas took part in the review process and some contributed to the film section

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For the evaluation phase, users were invited to suggest new content and contribute vlogs, suggest links to other resources, or share their experiences in film or written format through a co-production approach

Potential benefits of the project

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Raise awareness of the need for high quality parent-and-child foster care provision at a time when use of this provision is growing

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Address concerns in the social care arena about parent assessments and high rates of infant removals

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If the evaluation demonstrates that resources improve the quality of provision, directly benefit vulnerable parents in the care system and their children

This research project was adopted by ARC South London in June 2020. It is funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and was completed by December 2020.

Resources and papers

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‘She was accused of colluding with the mother’: the training and support needs of parent-and-child foster carers — a qualitative study
Child & Family Social Work — peer-reviewed paper
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Poster: Promoting Excellence in Parent and Child Foster Care 📄
Best practice recommendations for parent-and-child fostering (PDF)
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▶ What is parent-and-child foster care? — animation (YouTube)
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Self-directed learning logs for foster carers
User-friendly downloadable PDFs with bespoke illustrations, fillable at the learner’s own pace. Available via the Fostering Hope learning zone.
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Fostering Hope: promoting excellence in parent-and-child foster care — process evaluation report 📄
Full project evaluation report (PDF)

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Visit the Fostering Hope website

Access the full learning resource, vlogs, self-directed learning logs and the closed Facebook support group for parent-and-child foster carers.

Visit fosteringhope.co.uk →