Prepared for the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (2012)
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare coordinated the Foster Care Communication and Recruitment Strategy (FCCRS), a joint initiative of organisations providing foster care services. The strategy included the provision of a state-wide data management and referral system, a telephone hotline, a suite of promotional material and the Foster a Brighter Future Website. The strategy was funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services.
Verso was commissioned to evaluate the strategy to inform the update of the new Recruitment Strategy. This involved completion of a needs analysis to identify the supply and demand gap in the foster carer pool, a literature review and analysis of effective practices in foster carer recruitment, consultation with former foster carers regarding their reasons for leaving, and consultation with community service organisations about successful and unsuccessful practices in foster care recruitment.
The report can be downloaded from the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare website here. It made important recommendations to ensure the ongoing efficiency and effectiveness of Victorian approaches to foster care publicity and recruitment. It also made important recommendations to ensure that recruitment processes also meet the needs of potential foster carers. The report made a significant contribution to the challenge of ensuring that foster care remains a sustainable option for the placement of children who cannot live at home.