February 2019

It's been an exciting February. We have started our consultation and stakeholder engagement for Mockingbird.

Team Day

We started our engagement with our fostering team members. On our annual team day, we presented further information on Mockingbird - including answers to some of the original questions and concerns raised in the "planning to fail" excercise conducted when we first presentated Mockingbird to the team. We also asked the team to step into the shoes of our foster carers by creating mockup Mockingbird constellations for the different towns and areas in our County, discussing the reasons that some carers would benefit from being in a constellation and why some carers would not. This gave an interesting insight into the importance of the social benefits of being in a constellation, not just sleepovers and a break. It also raised personal stories for our carers, whose own family have previously provided support but as they are becoming elderly are no longer able to help.

Mockingbird Coach

Despite the snowy weather, we managed to have our first meeting with our Mockingbird coach - Judy. She has lots of experience from being part of Mockingbird from the original pilot. Discussion brought to light the idea of carers swapping their "respite entitlement" to be part of Mockingbird and that Mockingbird is not holiday cover but providing up to 2 or 3 nights maximum. We are due to meet with Judy again in March to discuss the hub carer person spec and financial options. Research is also being conducted into our current carers utilisation of their respite entitlement.

Data from other Constellations

We have also established connections with data management and research partners involved in the original constellations to include findings from more established Mockingbird partners.

State of the Nation

The Fostering Network's state of the nation report was also launched this Month with some interesting themes from foster carers nationally.

Family Support Officers

We presented the concept of Mockingbird to the Family Support Officers within social services. This team is responsible for the arrangements of contact between the child and their birth family. It was important for them to be aware of Mockingbird to understand the roles and possibility of the children being cared for by other members of the constellation and to possibly engage their help with training hub carers to facilitate contact for children within the constellation. The concept was positively received. Questions were raised from their point of view which have been recorded and will be really helpful to consider prior to launch.

Action for Children and CAMHS (RAP)

As part of our regular Repatriation and prevention meetings with AfC and CAMHS, we shared some information about the Mockingbird concept. We have been invited to a team meeting to share with the therapists in once more information is known.

Foster Carer Forums

We invited all of our foster carers to attend an annual foster carers forum, where we share new developments and an opportunity to raise any topics with the team and management. This was our first opportunity to share Mockingbird with our pool of carers. We presented the research process and invited them to join a working group. We presented the reasons why we are looking at Mockingbird. We also researched the comments made in all of our foster carers annual reviews and how these fit with the concept of Mockingbird. We then asked for some audience participation, asking carers to form small groups based on where they live. With some new carers and carers who don't know many other carers, this was a great opportunity to introduce themselves to other carers living nearby. We shared the concept of removing social work terminology from Mockingbird, and asked them to rip up the word "respite" and swap it for "sleepover". We shared the Mockingbird film on YouTube of carers sharing their constallation experience. We were delighted with the response from foster carers - it sparked questions and positive comments and carers wishing to be involved in the development of Mockingbird in Flintshire. It couldn't have gone better. We will be sending out a survey following the forums for any further comment and volunteers.

As a by-product of arranging these forums, a carer has come forward for another area of fostering presented at the forum, which would be a significant cost saving for the local authority, and would not have been considered without this event being part of the Mockingbird project.

Boot Camp 2

And finally, we met with our Innovate to Save cohort in Swansea for Bootcamp 2. It was lovely to see our fellow public service projects and share similar challenges. Taking the time to consider how you decribe, explain and "pitch" your project was extremely worthwhile - keeping it short and simple. We will be using this for the next phase of commuication.