Info Pack

south west
Summer Edition 2014
the
News and Events from Swiis Foster Care South West
Insider
News from Swiis
Meet the Team
our news
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 01
Gaynor Babb
Liz joined Swiis Foster Care in 2013 as
regional Business Manager, and comes with
a background of over eight years experience
within the independent fostering sector in
recruiting, supporting and assisting in the
assessment of foster carers across the UK.
Liz has experience in marketing and
advertising, initial home visit assessments to
prospective carers and has worked within a
multidisciplinary team. Liz has volunteered
overseas working directly with disadvantaged
children and young people, and has
volunteered as a mentor with looked after
children and young people.
Liz Culley Faith Giles
Paid
holidays
Experienced
buddy
allocated within
2 weeks
Events,
activities
& outings
Monthly
visits, weekly
phonecalls
Access
to education
advisers,
therapists and
health support
Monthly
carer support
groups
Qualied
social
workers
24/7
2+2=
Faith joined Swiis Foster Care in September
2013 as a Supervising Social Worker. Faith
has previous working experience as an
unqualied Social Worker in local authority
teams, working with children and young
people who are looked after and who are the
subjects of child protection plans. Faith also
completed a placement as a part of the
Masters programme within a fostering
team.
Gaynor is the Registered Manager for the
southwest team, and her role is to manage
the Bristol social work team who support
foster carers and the children in placement.
Gaynor has 20 years of social work
experience in Child Protection teams and
Looked after Children teams within local
authorities in Wales. Gaynor also holds a
Cardif University Qualied Teacher
Degree, and has taught Social Work to
Masters and Degree Social Work students at
Cardif University and Newport University.
Gaynor has worked with children and young
people for the whole of her 20 year social
work career.
Insider
News from Swiis
Meet the Team
our news
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 02
Sarah Brodigan Lisa Burton
Paid
holidays
Experienced
buddy
allocated within
2 weeks
Events,
activities
& outings
Monthly
visits, weekly
phonecalls
Access
to education
advisers,
therapists and
health support
Monthly
carer support
groups
Qualied
social
workers
24/7
2+2=
Lisa began working for Swiis in March 2014,
and brings to Swiis 2 years experience of
working as an initial visit specialist, going to
peoples homes and talking about the
fostering role. Previous to this Lisa has also
worked with children in many diferent
capacities, from working in specialist
childrens homes, to special schools. As the
Recruitment Ofcer Lisa is responsible for
attending events throughout the Southwest
spreading the fostering message to as many
people as possible, ensuring that those
people who are considering fostering receive
all the relevant information.
Since joining Swiis in 2011, Sarah has worked
as a senior support worker, recruitment
administrator and client liaison ofcer within
the health and social care sector, and
currently works as a Social Work Support
Ofcer for the Southwest Foster Care
team. Throughout her career, Sarah has
worked for a number of charitable
organisations in various roles including
support worker, support group facilitator
and supported living team manager. She has
also worked as volunteer in Nepal, teaching
and supporting young children and
teenagers.
Paid
holidays
Experienced
buddy
allocated within
2 weeks
Events,
activities
& outings
Monthly
visits, weekly
phonecalls
Access
to education
advisers,
therapists and
health support
Monthly
carer support
groups
Qualied
social
workers
24/7
2+2=
P a i d
h o l i d a y s
E x p e r i e n c e d
b u d d y
a l l o c a t e d w i t h i n
2 w e e k s
E v e n t s ,
a c t i v i t i e s
& o u t i n g s
M o n t h l y
v i s i t s , w e e k l y
p h o n e c a l l s
A c c e s s
t o e d u c a t i o n
a d v i s e r s ,
t h e r a p i s t s a n d
h e a l t h s u p p o r t
M o n t h l y
c a r e r s u p p o r t
g r o u p s
Q u a l i e d
s o c i a l
w o r k e r s
2 4 / 7
2 + 2 =
Paid
holidays
Experienced
buddy
allocated within
2 weeks
Events,
activities
& outings
Monthly
visits, weekly
phonecalls
Access
to education
advisers,
therapists and
health support
Monthly
carer support
groups
Qualied
social
workers
24/7
2+2=
Paid
holidays
Experienced
buddy
allocated within
2 weeks
Events,
activities
& outings
Monthly
visits, weekly
phonecalls
Access
to education
advisers,
therapists and
health support
Monthly
carer support
groups
Qualied
social
workers
24/7
2+2=
Insider
News from Swiis
New Starters
our news
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 03
Emma joined the Bristol Ofce in August
2014 as a Supervising Social Worker. Emma
was previously employed as a Safeguarding
Social Worker in a busy Child Protection
team, working cases from point of referral to
permanence planning or signposting. During
this time Emma completed MAIVIC training
(Multi Agency Investigation and Video
Interview Course) with Stafordshire Police
Constabulary, enabling her to jointly video
interview children as evidence within joint
agency Child Protection Investigations.
Emma also has experience working for
CAFCASS, completing Private Law reports
requested by the Family Courts to provide
advice on the childs best interests in relation
to Residence, Contact and Parental
Responsibility applications.
Emma Rodgers
Christopher started working for Swiis in
August 2014 as a Supervising Social Worker.
Christopher is a Social Worker with over 5
years of experience working with children
and families. He was previously employed in
a Child Protection team in Bristol and also
has experience of working in one of the few
Independent Social Work practices in the
country for looked after children.
Christopher Stephenson
Ofsted registration
Our Southwest ofce was ofcially registered with Ofsted as an
Independent Fostering Agency serving the Southwest following
a visit by an Ofsted inspector in January 2014. As a rst Tier
provider to the Southwest sub region fostering contract we have
since started building our pool of great foster carers!
Jess began working for Swiis in September
2014 and brings experience in carer
recruitment, initial visits and Panel
administration. Jess has volunteered for a
charity that ofers support, advice and
activities for fostered and adopted children
and their families. Within her voluntary role
Jess assisted with the planning and delivery
of activities and worked closely with children
and families to explore and communicate
their thoughts and feelings about being part
of a fostering family. As a Recruitment
Ofcer Jess is responsible for attending
events throughout the Southwest spreading
the fostering message to as many people as
possible, ensuring that those people who are
considering fostering receive all the
information they need to make an informed
decision.
Jessica Harrison
Online
training
We will now be providing online training
by AC Education who are E-Learning
specialists. There are a range of courses
available to ensure you are provided with
knowledge across a broad range of issues
that are essential to the children and young
people you will be working with. Your online
training options can be discussed with your
Supervising Social Worker or the training
team.
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 04
An introduction
to our training
team
Georgina May
Training & Development Manager
Georgina joined Swiis in July 2013 as Training and Development Manager. Previous to this
role Georgina worked as a Safeguarding Manager within the prison service for 13 years,
working with the most challenging and vulnerable teenage boys. Following this experience
Georgina became a foster carer in 2010 as she felt she had the right skill set to provide a
secure and safe home to young people in care. As a Training and Development Manager
Georgina provides preparation and core training to new, existing and prospective foster
carers, which are pivotal tools in assisting and supporting foster carers in the development
of the carer role.
Catherine joined Swiis in May 2012 as Team Leader for the Healthcare team in Bristol,
and started her role as In-House Trainer in 2013. Catherine has over ten years experience
of working in the health and social care sector, the main bulk of her experience has been
supporting people afected by learning disabilities and those with complex health needs. As
the In-House Trainer Catherine delivers training across the Foster Care and Healthcare
services for Swiis, including the preparation training for prospective foster carers and post-
approval mandatory training.
Catherine Loring
In House Trainer
Laura Evans
Training Co-ordinator
Laura has been with Swiis for 3 years, previously working as a Resource/Booking Coordinator
for the Health and Social Care team, and became the Training Coordinator in 2013. Her role
involves looking after the training compliance of all foster carers across London, Midlands
and the Southwest. Laura liaises with foster carers and their Supervising Social Worker on
a regular basis to discuss training needs, and monitors updates to ensure Swiis foster carers
training needs are being supported in a professional and efcient manner at all times.
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 05
Recruitment of
foster carers
Help Swiis with our ongoing drive to recruit
foster carers. If you know someone who is
interested in fostering and feel they would
make a good foster carer forward their
details onto us at Swiis. If they are
successful in being approved as a foster
carer and after a year of having a
placement, we will reward you with 1000.
Know of an upcoming event that you
feel would be good for Swiis to attend?
Let us know the details of the event
and we will do our best to attend.
Want to be involved in attending
events then please let us know. When
attending events and speaking to the
public, those interested nd it useful
speaking to foster carers themselves to
get an overview of what is involved and
their experiences.
Fancy holding a dinner party or a
cofee morning and helping to promote
Swiis? We will provide you with all the
marketing material you require for
your event, and we will compensate
you for your time.
events
Upcoming
Our recruitment ofcers are always out and about promoting Swiis and
fostering in the local community. Below are a few places you may see us
in the next coming weeks. If you are there please do pop by and say hello!
Exeter Caravan Show
Asda Cheltenham
Asda Filton
Tesco Cardif
4
th
& 5
th
October
16
th
October
21
st
October
27
th
October

Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 06

Colouring
competition
Swiis Foster Care southwest team travel all around the southwest attending diferent community
events and shows. For the Bristol Balloon Fiesta we thought we would try something diferent and
did a colouring competition for children with amazing prizes. We had an overwhelming response to
this, and by midday Saturday (Day 3 of the esta) we had run out of all our 150 colouring sheets!!
It was a great success, and not only did we see some amazing artwork created by the children who
entered the competition, we also got the opportunity to speak to some wonderful people and give
out lots of information about what fostering is really about. We hope that you all enjoyed the esta
and the colouring competition as much as we did and we will denitely be doing it again!
The winners of the competition were all chosen by our Chief Executive Ofcer, Mr Tim Notchell,
who was amazed at the time and talent that had gone into the entries, and found it extremely hard
to decide, but nally came to his decision in the end!
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 07
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Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 08
under 8s
1st Place
20 High street voucher
Ethan Betty - aged 7 years
2nd Place
10 High street voucher
Jessica
3rd Place
5 High street voucher
Ruby Cook - aged 3 years
colouring competition
winners
2 + 2 =
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Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 09
over 8s
1st Place
20 High street voucher
Joe Loveridge Aged 12
2nd Place
10 High street voucher
Lillie May Mills - aged 10
3rd Place
5 High street voucher
Polly Kennedy - aged 9
colouring competition
winners
Insider
News from Swiis
Swiis Newsletter South West Summer Edition 10
All the winners will be receiving their prize in the post in the next couple of days.
Lastly, the Swiis team had the pleasure of meeting an exceptional young man at the Balloon Fiesta,
Kian, who thought that fostering is such a worthy cause that he stayed with us for a few hours at the
stand helping us hand out leaets and speak to the public. He thought it was a great job to do and
wishes to become a foster carer himself when he grows up!
As a thank you for all his hard work and help on the day our CEO has decided that we would like to
award him with a special Extraordinary Contribution Award and 20 High Street vouchers to go
with it!
We hope you all enjoy your vouchers, and make sure you spend them wisely!
We hope to see you again soon out and about please do come and say hello if you see us and help
us spread the word about fostering in your local area!
Kind regards
The Swiis Foster Care Southwest Team
0117 906 5299
www.swiisfostercare.co.uk
t vSwiisFosterCare