We’ve started working with Nurture Fostering this year and so far, I’ve been impressed with their service. We’re really keen to develop strong working partnerships with London agencies to ensure we have as much choice for our children as possible. Nurture have been happy to meet with us to talk through their available carers and to give us an indication of the carers that they’ve got coming through to panel. We’re in regular communication and as a service, they are professional, responsive, thoughtful and helpful. I find Charlotte considerate in her matching. Whilst they have quite a few vacancies, she’s not in the business of offering us carers who wouldn’t be a good fit for the child or young person. They have been responsive in emergency situations and went over and above to ensure that the children who were being accommodated had everything they needed and experienced as little disruption as possible. We had another child who had experienced a difficult time with her previous carer and who went to a Nurture carer and had a great experience and successfully returned home to her family. We’ve also been able to work together closely ensuring plans were in place for a large sibling group to be able to remain together.
What has been really positive is regular communication. We often speak on the phone and have met via Teams rather than everything taking place over email. None of our placements have been ended. Things seem to be going well for the children who are living with Nurture carers and one child returned home successfully. This was supported over a gradual period by the foster carer. It there have been any difficulties with the SW teams, for example making requests that are outside of the carers’ remit, the agency have contacted us to support with these conversations. No concerns have been raised about any of the carers who look after our children or the support provided by the agency, we’ve only had positive feedback.
The agency are professional, responsive and we’ve been very happy with the service provided.
Commissioning at City of Westminster & Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea