Got a project in mind or just fancy a chat?
Fostering Rotherham
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Brightsparks is commissioned by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) to completely redesign and deliver its end to end approach to recruiting in-house foster carers.
After conducting in-depth research to inform the approach, Brightsparks developed an innovative new marketing and lead generation strategy combined with a new service model for the recruitment pathway. All elements of the new approach were informed by evidence-based behavioural science and made possible by a new digital system architecture. This philosophy and system design enables us to provide potential carers with the information and support they need, when they need it, in order to make the life-changing decision to become a foster carer.
“I hadn’t worked in this way before (with an outside agency) but to my delight what I found was a company who are as passionate about recruiting new foster carers as we are.
“They take time to understand the values and aims of the fostering service and recruit foster carers with vigour and sensitivity. They are extremely child focused and ethical in how they approach recruitment. They provide data that is robust and accurate and continually supports us in our work. They create strong relationships with social workers, managers, fostering advisers and foster carers, presenting as authentic and professional.
“One of the most beneficial aspects of their role is to monitor all leads and ensure that they receive excellent customer service. I’m confident we don’t miss out on recruiting foster carers due to a missed phone call or somebody falling through the system. Their processes ensure oversight of every step in the enquirer’s journey to becoming a foster carer. I would highly recommend them to any recruitment service that wants to see an increase in new foster carers.”
- Justine Hirst, Fostering Recruitment Manager at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Key Achievements
91
quality fostering enquiries per month, on average, in 2021/22
14
average virtual information event registrants per month
58%
conversion rate from assessment to approval
24
newly approved foster carers in Year 1
