Find out if you could be a foster carer
In a few simple questions, you’ll know if you’re suitable to apply to become a foster carer.
Child Care Bureau (CCB) is an independent fostering agency, part of National Fostering Group. We match children and young people to fostering families across Worcestershire and the wider West Midlands.
Address
1st Floor Unit 11-13, Elgar Business Centre
Moseley Road
Hallow
Worcester
WR2 6NJ
Phone number
01905 640022
General email
[email protected]
Opening Hours
Our Head Office is based in Worcestershire and we have amazing fostering families throughout the West Midlands to include in Birmingham, Sandwell, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Staffordshire, Solihull, Coventry, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire.
We are a child focused fostering agency and have a strong ethos of supporting our foster parents throughout each stage of their fostering role, helping them to care with confidence and experience every reward fostering has to offer. During our most Ofsted inspection (December 2023) we retained our overall judgement grading of “Outstanding” .
CCB works in partnership with local authorities to match children and young people with fostering families. We provide short-term, long-term, emergency, respite, bridging, sibling groups, parent and child, step-down, unaccompanied children and young people, and those seeking asylum.
Depending on their experience, current needs, and future care plans, fostered children live with our foster parents for different lengths of time; sometimes on their own, sometimes with their siblings, and often alongside their foster parent’s birth children.
People from all walks of life can become foster parents. You can help to inspire a generation of vulnerable children and young people to find their way in the world. You can help us build an incredible future for them. If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent with CCB, please get in touch with us today.
“The agency was founded in 2000 by foster parents who had a great insight into how foster parents want and need to be supported. Since joining the National Fostering Group we have maintained our family feel whilst also growing and developing our support package for families”
Nicki Markides-Arrowsmith, Registered Manager
Our mission is that every day we improve the lives of thousands of young people, their families and communities through relentless focus on caring and learning. CCB’s vision is to build incredible futures by empowering vulnerable young people in the UK to be happy and make their way in the world. Together, our mission and vision keep us focused on what really matters – children, the heart of everything we do.
We have a dedicated team of professionals who are all motivated and committed to achieving the best possible outcomes for all the children and young people in our care. We are committed to being there for our foster parents through each stage of their fostering career, whilst ensuring that our children and young people get what they need to find their way in the world.
CCB has a founding legacy based around first-hand experience of how it feels to be a foster parent. We highly value being part of the National Fostering Group, with the skills and resources this brings, whilst remaining committed to retaining the personal touch. The team are accessible and responsive to children and foster parents and regard the wellbeing of birth children as being as important as that of fostered children.
CCB was founded in 2000 by a former foster family, who brought a great deal of insight into the levels of support foster parents, and the children and young people in their care need and deserve.
In 2018, CCB became a partner agency of the National Fostering Group and have continued to retain our founding family values and ethos. We are proud to be part of the National Fostering Group and the positive benefits that this brings to all of our stakeholders.
“We care deeply about the families and young people that we support. I am available to be contacted by carers and young people alike and take pride in offering high levels of support and care. We do not consider ‘good enough’ acceptable and strive to give children and young people the best of opportunities”
Nicki Markides-Arrowsmith, Registered Manager
Our founders’ knowledge and experience has influenced how CCB focuses on providing expert support to our fostering families and all children in the household. We help them to provide safe, stable and nurturing foster homes to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our communities. We want to make a lasting positive impression on all children and young people we care for and do the very best we can for them.
We achieve this by offering all dedicated foster parents free access to learning and development opportunities, friendly round-the-clock support 365-days a year, mentoring from experienced foster parents, and so much more. Our foster parents receive high levels of support and supervision, learning and development opportunities, access and consultation to clinical psychology, and local foster parent coffee mornings and support group meetings.
The agency is proud of its stable staff base which means that the majority of foster families benefit from consistent relationships with supervising social workers and the staff team. Social workers and managers make themselves available to foster parents 24/7 and the message to them is: if you’re wondering whether to call, then call – we are here to support you.
Our foster parents can claim a wide range of perks and benefits, like free membership to The Fostering Network, Max Cards,high street discounts, invitations to family activities and events, and much more.
Our focus is on enabling children and young people to recognise their potential and achieve it. Consequently, all decision-making has the child’s best interests at its heart. We achieve very positive outcomes for children, for example, GCSE and SAT results can often exceed those of children who are not looked after. Our perspective is “the sky’s the limit”.
If problems arise, the whole team including foster parents and children works together to try and find a positive solution. The agency takes its commitment to each child very seriously and does whatever it can to achieve the best outcomes, calling on all of the available resources, interventions and support. Its aim is to be service-user led and it hosts foster parent forums and children and young peoples’ forums to encourage feedback on how it can support people better.
We receive excellent feedback from foster parents, particularly in relation to support, communication and accessibility. Our matching process also comes in for regular praise, with care taken to consider the whole family’s views. Looked after children also have good satisfaction levels according to the annual survey and any issues are responded to swiftly.
Alongside the broader values of the National Fostering Group, CCB is committed to doing its absolute best, learning from any mistakes and never accepting “good enough” as good enough; “Our children deserve the best” is our core principle.
