Skyrocket

The genesis of the Skyrocket project began in 2015. The three CEOs of Community Foster Care, The Foster Care Co-operative and The Children's Family Trust - Hugh Pelham, Ian Brazier and Marina Mulholland respectively - were discussing the issue of recruiting quality Registered Managers within the fostering sector. Together they recognised that the function of an RM is a complex and challenging one due to the varied and demanding skillset required to successfully fulfill the role. They discussed at length what they believed to be the roles and responsibilities of an RM - and had a very long list! When considering guidelines from Ofsted and National Minimum Standards, the demands for that individual role are considerable. The driving focus was to ensure that the key elements of regulation, administration, contracting, leadership and HR were to be delivered within the context of fostering. After lengthy discussions about the difficulty in finding the right training for good potential and practicing RMs, the three CEOs decided to design and deliver their own. And so Skyrocket was created. Recognising that time for fostering managers is very limited, it was agreed that SkyRocket would provide an approach that delivered key priorities, aide memoires and signposted key resources, in order to offer Fostering RMs a Toolkit for Survival for future reference. This approach, targeted for potential or newly appointed RMs, shares and develops the experience of those in post, who have often had to “find their way”, by providing a clear overview of the specific responsibilities, practical priorities and delivery methods of what can often seem an overwhelming number of pressing priorities.