We know that as a Local Authority you are legally responsible for the safeguarding and outcomes of all children in your care. As an independent fostering agency we work closely with you to provide the placement stability and support necessary for the looked after child/children or young person you are looking to place with us.

At the Acorns, placement stability is key so we provide excellent training and 24-hour support to all of our families. Our foster carer’s take a therapeutic approach and are trained to look for the reasons behind presenting behaviours in order to address the cause rather than the consequence. We recruit foster parents from all over the North East and aim to reflect the ethnicity and cultures of the children in our care to ensure a diverse mix of families to meet our young peoples needs.

We are passionate about giving our children and young people the skills to grow and develop in line with their peer group and each child, regardless of age, has an independence plan that is reviewed and monitored regularly. This helps us to recognise and reward achievement and ensures that any gaps can be addressed promptly with additional help sought when necessary.

Each child that comes into an Acorns family will have a savings account opened for them that is controlled by Acorns management. £10 a week will be deducted from the foster carer allowance and deposited for the child. The funds will only be released upon the written request of the child’s social worker, ensuring that our young people leave us with an appropriate amount of savings to help them to live independently.

We work with a consultant psychologist, Dr. Nikki Hill, who directs our training programme for staff and foster carer’s and assesses any of our children at the request of their social worker. If a child is confirmed as being placed with one of our families permanently, we will source and fund a therapeutic assessment and then provide and fund a set amount of therapeutic interventions, dependent upon the recommendation of the assessing psychologist. We believe that we are unique in offering this service in the North East, but placement stability is key and we know that therapy sessions can help children to make sense of their feelings of loss, grief and anger. This results in more positive outcomes for our children and young people helping them to come to terms with their past so that they can embrace their future with confidence.