More ‘Investing in Children’ memberships awarded to Five Rivers Fostering

“The positive relationships the staff team have with the young people has clearly been the driving force for positive change to happen”.

Investing in Children report, March 2017

Two Five Rivers fostering regions, Midlands and North and South West have been awarded Investing in Children membership.

The award recognises how we include children and young people in decisions relating to their own care:  our staff and carers were interviewed about practices and children were asked for their own views.

The report for Midlands and North concluded:

“All of the young people I met with spoke very highly of the service they receive from Five Rivers and the way their voices are heard that leads to change…”

The conclusion for South West was:

“It is clear to see from the evidence gathered that children and young people are involved in having a voice through a variety of ways”

Here are three of the many ways we include children in designing their own care:

• Involving children and young people in the planning, allocation and budget-choices for trips
• Allowing young people to lead and shape projects such as producing videos about life in care
• Creating opportunities for children and young people to be involved in the evaluations of staff.

Three out of five of our fostering locations in England now have the award, and the other two regions are close to achieving it.

Our Fostering Operations Manager,  David Baker Price says,

“Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the report and took part in the assessment. Five Rivers has invested in building a participation programme in the past two years. This has paid off massively. The processes for children to have both a collective voice and better individual support in their care are having a direct impact on the way we do things.