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Please see Policies E01, E02 and E03

The needs of the children fostered by Devon County Council vary considerably and the Directorate aims to recruit and maintain a pool of carers to enable placements to be made, and to provide a choice of placements and an appropriate range of carers to suit the needs of each child.

All fostering social workers undertaking carer assessments have a social work qualification, and receive training in the assessment process.  This, alongside an established structure for assessment using a competency based model, assists in maintaining agreed standards and a consistency of approach.

Recruitment and Assessment of Carers

Recruitment and assessment form part of a single, planned process which provides fostering workers and applicants with sufficient information:

• to make informed decisions on processing applications,
• to provide a clear time frame for all concerned,
• to maintain a consistent structure from information giving/gathering, throughout the assessment process to approval.

Within this the distinction should be recognised between recruitment, the active encouragement of appropriate applicants, and assessment, the objective appraisal of applicants.

Information Base for Recruitment

Devon utilises its management information systems to collate information on their current foster carers, their skills and areas of expertise, geographical location and age groups covered, and the numbers of short term, intermediate, long term, home based.  

This information, alongside knowledge of the needs of children both in and requiring foster care, and Devon’s ability to meet these needs at any one time, informs the ongoing recruitment strategy..

Advertising and Recruitment Activities

Devon utilises a variety of methods within its recruitment strategy.  It has recently utilised high profile national recruitment campaigns as well as locally targeted recruitment for adolescent carers.  

Alongside these Devon operates a continuous lower key community development approach in differing areas of the county, including a presence in local shows, libraries, articles and advertisements in newspapers.

Devon has developed its own website dedicated to the fostering service and recruitment.  This summarises the different types of fostering, including the specialist fee paid Family Care Worker  Scheme, the skills and qualities required to be a foster carer, an overview of the process, and how to make the first step.  

Responses to recruitment are monitored and specific initiatives evaluated, particularly to keep under review the matching of local needs.

• See Recruitment Process diagram
  
  These links can only be viewed if you have access to the DCC staff intranet.