Executive Summary
Fostering Wellbeing is a pilot initiative devised by The Fostering Network that has been trialled in Cwm Taf, Wales drawing on elements of the Head, Heart and Hands programme (McDermid et al., 2016) and London Fostering Achievement model (Sebba et al., 2016) and set in a Welsh context. Fostering Wellbeing encompasses three strands of work:
i. A set of five themed masterclasses delivered to multi-disciplinary members working in the team around the child (social work, health, education, youth justice).
ii. The development of the Pioneer foster carer role to provide training, operate a telephone helpline and run support groups for foster carers, based within the local authority fostering team offices.
iii. Service support and action plan.
The pilot programme ran from 2017 to 2019. To date, four cohorts of professionals have attended the series of masterclasses, seven Pioneers have been appointed, and a servicelevel action plan has been devised and is being implemented. Cardiff University were commissioned to evaluate the Fostering Wellbeing programme between October 2017 and March 2019. In order to evaluate the programme a mixed approach was adopted, including: a survey of 117 participants; observations of the masterclasses (one of each session across the first three cohorts, and all five in the fourth cohort); interviews with 13 delegates three months after masterclass attendance, and seven of the same delegates 12 months later; interviews with 16 key stakeholders; a focus group with foster care Pioneers; creative methods with four children; and an in-depth case study of one unit of professionals working in the team around the child.
