CHILDREN IN CARE IN MANCHESTER
There are over 940 children in the Manchester City Council area currently in care, according to recent statistics.
That, of course, does not cover the whole region. There are also:
- Over 300 in Rochdale
- Almost 300 in Stockport
- 360+ in Oldham
- 240+ in Bury
And that’s just those few council areas.
In other words, thousands of children across Greater Manchester have a need for a foster care placement.
AGENCY VS COUNCIL
When we began looking into this process, one of the first decisions it became evident that there’s a need to make is whether to go through the council or a private fostering agency.
There’s a very in depth range of checks and training required whichever route you go through. But a fostering agency may well be offer more generous allowances. It’s an important question to ask.
Ultimately, my friend decided to apply through an agency.
That application is an on going process, so I won’t talk about it anymore, but I will share the details of agencies we researched in the process below.
FOSTERING AGENCIES IN MANCHESTER
We looked into the following 3 private fostering agencies in Greater Manchester.
Fostering Agency | Areas Covered in North West | Benefits | Reviews |
Perpetual Fostering | An independent agency covering Manchester, the wider Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, parts of West Yorkshire and also the West MIdlands | Up to £1000 if you transfer to them from another agency and generous fostering allowances.
Full training and support for carers | Averaging 5 stars on Google |
Safehouses Fostering | Oldham, other parts of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire | Full training and support for carers. Established over 20 years, | Unable to find reviews (not always easy for agencies like these to get people to publicly review) |
Acorn House Fostering Services | Oldham | Full training and support for carers | Unable to find public reviews |
FOSTERING AGENCIES ARE INSPECTED BY OFSTED
While we weren’t able to find public reviews for Manchester of the fostering agencies in Manchester we looked at, we were able to find Ofsted reports for them all and I would encourage you to take a look at such inspection reports when you consider applying yourself.
We found:
- Perpetual Fostering was rated Good in February 2018 with particular praise for its support workers who support carers and for the agency’s enthusiastic leadership
- Safehouses Fostering rated outstanding in its December 2018 inspection with particular praise for the quality of support carers receive from support workers
- Acorn House rated good in its inspection in December 2017 with particular praise for the quality of assessments that carers are put through
We would recommend you read the full reports for any independent fostering agency you consider.
We’re by no means experts in the space but would suggest you speak to an agency local to you and get all the right advice if you are considering fostering.
