mockingbird

Every Mockingbird constellation is led by a hub home carer in partnership with a liaison worker. These roles are unique in foster care, building a community and supporting whole families. Wendy, a hub home carer in Wigan, tells us how she got into fostering and what her hub home carer role requires.

Kate and her partner Natalie have been foster carers for four years and became Mockingbird hub home carers for Trust Fostering, part of Doncaster Children’s Services Trust, in 2018. Over the last 15 months going in and out of lockdown, they have started setting regular competitions and organised activities to keep the children in the constellation entertained. This has not only supported relationship building within the constellation but with the wider community as well. Kate tells us more.

This year marks five years of The Fostering Network’s Mockingbird programme in the UK. To celebrate this milestone we’re speaking to foster carers, young people and staff in services who joined the programme back in 2015 to hear about their experiences and how it feels to be part of a Mockingbird community.

Hub home carers are at the centre of each of our Mockingbird contellations, so we thought we would let you know what their role involves.

Our Mockingbird programme is growing rapidly, with new constellations (fostering households gathered around a hub home which offers planned and emergency respite, advice, training and support) popping up across the country. One of the unexpected joys of the programme is the emergence of the important role played by ‘hub animals’: pets that were part of the household before the family took on the role of the hub home and have now become a much loved member of the wider constellation family. The presence of these animals within the hub home adds to the variety of experiences for children and young people - and often provides another important relationship to support young people to learn new skills and confidences. We are collecting some great stories about the impact of pets living in the satellite homes – with some even accompanying children and young people at sleepovers in the hub home!

Mockingbird is an innovative programme for delivering foster care which can bring significant benefits to the lives of fostered children and those who look after them. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has been part of the programme since its inception in 2015.

This blog summarises our Big Issue article from Issue 169 of Foster Care magazine about foster carers’ health and wellbeing.