{"id":40559,"date":"2019-05-29T15:53:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T19:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/blog\/theres-no-secret-sauce-to-being-a-foster-carer\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:43:27","slug":"theres-no-secret-sauce-to-being-a-foster-carer","status":"publish","type":"blog_posts","link":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/theres-no-secret-sauce-to-being-a-foster-carer\/","title":{"rendered":"There&#8217;s no secret sauce to being a foster carer: Stoke-on-Trent Dispels the myths with 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But the truth is that foster carers are just like you \u2013 and me: they cover the full spectrum of the human condition, with all its flaws and (more importantly) all its strengths.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s these myths that Stoke-on-Trent City Council\u2019s latest fostering campaign is aimed at dispelling, after research from enquiries submitted to the fostering team showed most people\u2019s questions about fostering could be really easily answered.<\/p>\n<p>The eye-catching idents speak directly to those people who ask:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>But what if I\u2019m single?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I\u2019m unemployed?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I work full-time?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I\u2019m a man?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28974\" src=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/png\/Stoke-on-trent-foster-bulletins.png\" alt=\"Stoke on Trent Foster blog\" width=\"656\" height=\"945\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The images \u2013 which all expand further on their particular myth \u2013 have been used in the authority\u2019s fostering email bulletin on a regular basis (and especially during the current fostering fortnight) to encourage as many of its 1,233 subscribers to take what can often be the daunting first step of attending an information evening.<\/p>\n<p>A week before the monthly information events, we send a bulletin out to all the fostering subscribers; some of them will open it, some of them won\u2019t (actually these get a solid open rate of around 33 per cent on average) because it\u2019s not the right time for them. Then, on the morning of the event we send a reminder out to <strong>those people who opened the first bulletin<\/strong> \u2013 people who might have forgotten, who might just need a little nudge, who might need one of those myths dispelling, who might be you!<\/p>\n<p>It seems to be working, because comparisons between people who attended and people who opened both of these event notifications\u00a0 showed around a dozen who attended a recent session. And around 50 per cent of these \u2018engaged\u2019 subscribers opened the reminder email.<\/p>\n<p>One of the myths people have raised (and we\u2019re tackling) is that if they foster, they won\u2019t get any support. Research shows it can be two years between people first thinking of fostering to taking the plunge, and our fostering bulletins are a great way of supporting them even before they become foster carers with us, to help them decide if this is the right step for them.<\/p>\n<p>This fostering fortnight we hope we\u2019re dispelling the myth that foster carers are mythical perfect beings like unicorns, but just as magical.<\/p>\n","button":""}}]},"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]},"centered_layout_builder_clone":{"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<h4><b><em>Foster care is at the top of most council\u2019s priority list, here we\u2019ve asked Karen Steele, Digital Manager from Stoke-On-Trent Council to tell us about their recent email campaign that successfully engaged with potential foster carers and helped to dispel common myths.<\/em> <\/b><\/h4>\n<p>There are a lot of myths about foster carers:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>They can\u2019t work full-time<\/li>\n<li>But they can\u2019t be unemployed<\/li>\n<li>They can\u2019t be too old<\/li>\n<li>But they can\u2019t be too young<\/li>\n<li>They can\u2019t have children of their own<\/li>\n<li>But they can\u2019t be childless<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Much like Goldilocks\u2019 mythical bowl of porridge, they have to be <strong>just right<\/strong> \u2013 at least that\u2019s what a lot of people think. But the truth is that foster carers are just like you \u2013 and me: they cover the full spectrum of the human condition, with all its flaws and (more importantly) all its strengths.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s these myths that Stoke-on-Trent City Council\u2019s latest fostering campaign is aimed at dispelling, after research from enquiries submitted to the fostering team showed most people\u2019s questions about fostering could be really easily answered.<\/p>\n<p>The eye-catching idents speak directly to those people who ask:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>But what if I\u2019m single?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I\u2019m unemployed?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I work full-time?<\/li>\n<li>But what if I\u2019m a man?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28974\" src=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/png\/Stoke-on-trent-foster-bulletins.png\" alt=\"Stoke on Trent Foster blog\" width=\"656\" height=\"945\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The images \u2013 which all expand further on their particular myth \u2013 have been used in the authority\u2019s fostering email bulletin on a regular basis (and especially during the current fostering fortnight) to encourage as many of its 1,233 subscribers to take what can often be the daunting first step of attending an information evening.<\/p>\n<p>A week before the monthly information events, we send a bulletin out to all the fostering subscribers; some of them will open it, some of them won\u2019t (actually these get a solid open rate of around 33 per cent on average) because it\u2019s not the right time for them. Then, on the morning of the event we send a reminder out to <strong>those people who opened the first bulletin<\/strong> \u2013 people who might have forgotten, who might just need a little nudge, who might need one of those myths dispelling, who might be you!<\/p>\n<p>It seems to be working, because comparisons between people who attended and people who opened both of these event notifications\u00a0 showed around a dozen who attended a recent session. And around 50 per cent of these \u2018engaged\u2019 subscribers opened the reminder email.<\/p>\n<p>One of the myths people have raised (and we\u2019re tackling) is that if they foster, they won\u2019t get any support. Research shows it can be two years between people first thinking of fostering to taking the plunge, and our fostering bulletins are a great way of supporting them even before they become foster carers with us, to help them decide if this is the right step for them.<\/p>\n<p>This fostering fortnight we hope we\u2019re dispelling the myth that foster carers are mythical perfect beings like unicorns, but just as magical.<\/p>\n","button":""}}]}},"post_slider_clone":{"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]}},"call_to_action":{"hide_call_to_action":false,"color":"red","custom_cta":false,"custom_subhead":"","custom_headline":"","custom_description":"","custom_link":null,"custom_image":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts\/40559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_posts"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_market?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_dept","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_dept?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_type?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_region?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_outcomes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_outcomes?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_topic?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_products?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_solutions?post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_services?post=40559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}