Member

We are already doing other things to support councils to recruit and retain foster carers, investing in those regional recruitment hubs and also communication campaigns across over 60% of councils. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, that this is an area where it feels like thinking about innovative models will be important in helping us to achieve our objectives. That is why our investment includes an expansion of the Mockingbird family model, which is an innovative evidence-based approach that groups six to 10 families around a hub home carer and, in doing so, therefore provides peer support, respite and training. An independent evaluation found that Mockingbird substantially improved retention, with participating households 82% less likely to deregister than non-participating households.