Sibling Recruitment
Barnardo’s South East Adoption Service has
taken the lead on this expansion grant within
Barnardo’s but it is a full agency initiative.
Staff across 4 placement teams in East
Anglia, London and the South East (Kent/East
Sussex and West Sussex/Surrey/Hampshire)
have been involved at various levels
supported
by
the
Counselling
and
Psychotherapy team within the service.
Other staff in particular the Practice Manager
who was until Oct working full time on this
initiative have had key lead roles supported
by the implementation group and the
service’s training review group.
Desired Outputs
• Marketing and recruitment activity working
alongside New Family Social.
• Production of video material including
LGBGT adopters of siblings for use in
recruitment and training.
• Recruit and place a sibling group in 5
households by March 2016.
• Sibling specific training modules to be
available for use by other agencies.
• Engage and consult with existing adopters
of large sibling groups.
• Develop schemes for buddying for
prospective adopters seeking to adopt
sibling groups.
• Identify and disseminate information on
models of support and training available.
• An activity day for adopters of siblings.
• A final report
Marketing and Recruitment
Barnardo’s Website has published a real-life
case study animation video and this has been
have promoted via a variety of offline and
digital channels including social media.
Video content published at the end of
2014/2015 continues to attract more views,
with total views reaching over 156,800.
We were able to give LGBT video content
funded in 2014/15 an additional push during
this summer.
March 2015
Key note speech delivered by a Barnardo’s adopter
at the New Family Social Flagship event held in
London during LGBGT Adoption and Fostering
Week.
June 2015
Barnardo’s held a Network event for Gay and
Lesbian adopters/prospective adopters.
Joint event held for adopters/prospective adopters
with New Family Social.
Joint stall with New Family Social at London Pride.
Sept 2015
Family Fun day with PACT specifically for Gay and
Lesbian adopters.
• A flier giving information to enquirers on the
initiative is being sent out with our initial
information pack.
• A pull up banner has been created and is in use.
• Staff leading regular information meetings (3 a
month) have been briefed on the initiative and
one to one sessions offered to prospective
adopters expressing interest in 3 plus sibling
group.
• Two workshops on the initiative held at the South
West Consortium Conference on 10th March 2015.
• Stall at a London Adoption Board event on 18
June 2015.
Consultation
• Questionnaire sent out to Barnardo’s adopters
who have adopted large sibling groups (3 or
more) in the service over the past 5 years.
• Workshop held with Panel members from the 3
Adoption Panels as part of the Panel Annual
Meeting.
• Workshop with staff as part of the Service Full
Staff Meeting.
Training
Reviewed basic training to emphasise the needs of
siblings and the likely issues prospective adopters
need to consider.
Reviewed on-going training programme and what
we need to add in specific to the needs of
prospective adopters taking large sibling groups.
Draft two day training to be piloted in the New Year.
Funded 10 places for sibling adopters on a training
arranged by PAC on Meeting the challenge of
adopting sibling groups led by Louis Sydney.
Assessment
• Motivation
• Engagement with issues for siblings
• Personal resilience
• Understanding of attachment issues
• Ability to engage with and use attachment
focused therapy and positive parenting
techniques.
Support
• We are implementing a tailor made support plan
to enable early focused discussion on the
practical, financial and emotional support
prospective adopters have in place and what
additionally might be required to progress the
placement of a sibling group particularly of 3 or 4
children or more.
• We are implementing a plan for a consultation
with Barnardo’s LINK Therapy service on
attachment focused work in Stage 1 and at the
point a potential match is being considered.
Practical and financial considerations
• Income levels and need for RFS
• Ability to take time off work
• Opportunity for extra pair of hands
• House size and adaptation
• Transport/car size
• Equipment including washing machines
• Help with cleaning
• Logistics – nursery/school runs
We hope to make it clearer for LA’s what support
any particular adopters we have recruited are going
to need to take a large sibling group.
By providing the rationale and assessment of their
likely needs up front we hope to better support
busy social workers in making the case for the
provision required in what is often a pressurised
time i.e. when progressing a match and placement.
Of course the assessment of the adopters likely
needs will need to be cross referenced with the
children’s identified needs in finalising a plan for a
match.
Promoting early placement
We hope the work we will be doing will provide
tools that enable everyone involved in placing large
sibling groups to be able to more systematically
identify
need
and
therefore
demands
on
prospective adopters.
The aim too is to identify the resources needed to
support the placement so that large sibling groups
achieve a permanent placement through adoption
sooner rather than later and one that will last.
Recruitment & Approvals
April 2014 to Oct 2015
Total invited to Stage 1
108 households
48% interested in adopting a sibling group.
88.5% interested in sibling group of 2
11.5% interested in sibling group of 3
Stage 1 LGBT
16 (14.8%)
56% interested in sibling group of 2
6.25% interested in sibling group of 3
6 households in assessment for sibling group of 3
Questions/Comments