Foster Carer Retention Project Michelle Galbraith Project Manager Introduce myself - parent, foster carer, teacher Important to share my background because being a foster carer ensured that other foster carers spoke honestly with me. It was mentioned several times that I must understand, that I had probably had similar experiences, that I was capable of getting it. It really helped communication. This is a really important aspect of the research, foster carers want their exit interviews carried out by someone who can have empathy for their situation because they truly understand. I don’t believe that this needs to be a foster carer however, someone who has, and demonstrates, empathy to undertake the exit interview is really important to foster carers.

Project conception ‘Exit interviews could provide valuable intelligence about why foster parents leave, and what could be done to improve retention. We encourage fostering providers to take this forward, where appropriate.’ Fostering Better Outcomes July 2018 Where did the project originate? The Fostering Network has a strategic objective to Support fostering families, and the services that work with them, to provide the best possible care for children and young people. Understanding and learning from practice, including the experiences of foster carers who leave services, can be a key way of achieving this objective. Academic research in 2014 identified a significant gap in capturing information from foster carers who leave, specifically through the ‘exit interview’ process. Working collaboratively to develop a business case for the project, The Exilarch’s Foundation are funding The Fostering Network to deliver the Foster Carer Retention project in 2018/19. This project aligns well to the recommendation in the Fostering Better Outcomes report that stated ‘Exit interviews could provide valuable intelligence about why foster parents leave, and what could be done to improve retention. We encourage fostering providers to take this forward, where appropriate.’ This was a direct response to The National Fostering Stocktake, that noted that ‘Too few carers who leave are given exit interviews, as few as 5% according to the Fostering Network. We recommend that local authorities and independent agencies should invite a much larger proportion of resigning and retiring carers to such interviews.’

Objectives Understand the reasons why foster carers leave their fostering service Identify the optimum timings for processing exit interviews Identify any themes as to the reasons why foster carers choose to leave Create a robust process for future exit interviews Embed learning to enhance retention and subsequent recruitment of foster carers We set out to Create an exit interview toolkit so that services can routinely capture key information from foster carers who leave In order to create a robust and sustainable toolkit, we needed to take into account several different things. The Fostering Network already gathers data about why foster carers leave their fostering service. By talking to foster carers face to face during this project, we have managed to gather a deeper level of data. We have heard from carers about the actions, events and experiences that lead to them considering their options. The challenges we have heard about are usually not driven by budgets or diary priorities – the changes that foster carers would like to see are generally very basic, and simple to implement. We asked foster carers if they had stopped fostering, or for when they might leave their fostering service or career, when they’d like to discuss their reasons. We were surprised by the results – every person we spoke to gave two answers, on leaving and later on, after a period of reflection. Foster carers know that if and when they stop fostering they may be emotional, have suffered a disappointment or be facing challenges – they told me that their immediate feelings and their reflective conclusions might be different, whilst both being valid and helpful for practice development. The Fostering Network routinely collects information from foster carers, including the reasons that foster carers stop fostering, or might consider doing so. During this project we have discovered that deeper reasons, than those already known, exist for many carers. Some reasons have been predictable and some surprising. We’ll include a range of these in our final project report. We aim to create a toolkit that can help services retain more carers, we hope that this is simple and sustainable so that data is consistently gathered, and that it is relevant, so that services can improve practice. The Fostering Network is committed to using all the learning from this project to enhance the retention and recruitment of foster carers. Once the toolkit is published we will be sharing all of the information gathered during the project with internal colleagues so that it can be utilised for other projects, commitments and future ideas.

There are two aspects to this project Exit Interviews Methodology There are two aspects to this project Exit Interviews Themes and Reasons Methodology We have undertaken a literacy review of the available evidence regarding exit interviews in general. We have researched how independent fostering providers, local authorities and trusts currently use exit interviews, what is beneficial and what is missing at the moment. We have worked face to face with 5 partner services, and remotely with 2 associates, to gather foster carer views via focus groups and other communications. We have undertaken several surveys, hearing from around 600 people across the UK and have worked with our commercial partners to understand their exit interview processes. Results We asked the general population about their exit interview experiences. Less than half had been offered an exit interview during their working life. This confirmed findings during our literacy review that exit interviews weren’t as popular as we’d thought. However, 78% who had been offered an exit interview said that they did find the process beneficial. We found that when exit interviews take place, they can be valuable to people and organisations. On transferring services, only 7% of respondents to our foster carer survey were offered an exit interview. This is definitely an area for development because these carers want to continue fostering, the original service has invested so much in their registration, training and support and to see them move, so that another service can benefit, must be a challenge. We are in the process of surveying services now, we’d like to discover how many are offering exit interviews, and what the challenges and benefits are. So . . . .

Activity Discuss Does your service currently offer exit interviews? What are the benefits to your service of conducting them? What do you think are the barriers to conducting them? Ten minutes to discuss, then 5 minutes feedback. Please make some notes so that I can collect them in to inform the project further. Great comparison – foster careers gave different answers face to face and online – do services as well? Compare with services survey when it is returned.

Next steps Designing, creating and testing the toolkit Feedback and reporting Supporting services with implementation What are we going to do next? We’re going to create the exit interview toolkit, designing it in corroboration with our partner services, focus groups and internal partners. We’re going to test the toolkit, ensuring that it is robust and sustainable and confirming that it is fit for purpose. Most importantly, we’re going to ensure that the exit interiview toolkit demonstrates that the focus group foster carers have been listened to. We’re going to feedback to partner services and foster carers, and launch the toolkit for use.

Thank you www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk Michelle.galbraith@fostering.net