Hull Fostering are soon to be launching their second Mockingbird Constellation, after the incredible success of our first Mockingbird family launched almost two years ago.
What is Mockingbird?
Mockingbird is an innovative method of delivering foster care. This is an ‘extended family model’ that provides sleepovers, peer support, regular joint planning and training, and social activities.
The programme improves the stability of fostering placements and strengthens the relationships between carers, children and young people, fostering services and birth families.
Having a Hub home foster carer in the centre, up to 10 foster families come together to form a Mockingbird family and support each other.
Each Mockingbird family will be given their own liaison worker and everyone within the Mockingbird constellation will naturally become extended members of each others families.
Children and young people within the Mockingbird family will see the other adults as Aunts and Uncles and not necessarily foster carers offering respite care. The children within the Mockingbird family will view the other children and young people as close friends, normalising being looked after and carers will build strong friendships.
The Mockingbird model helps with the continuity and unconditional care for our children, and will help normalise the concept of care.
It’s like having a big family you can talk to about how you are feeling – it feels good to know I’m not lone.
young person
Key Roles within the Mockingbird Constellation
- Hub home carer
- Liaison worker
- Satellite carers.
Key elements of the model
- Foster carer led advice, guidance and emotional and social peer support
- Planned and emergency sleepovers
- Formal and informal training and development opportunities
- Whole community social activities
- Support to permanence – birth family, long term placement, adoption, independence.
- Support with sibling and birth family contact
Mockingbird’s impact
There is continuous analysis of the fidelity of the Mockingbird model and based on the latest reports we know:
Improved placement stability – reduced placement breakdown
- Improved placement stability – reduced placement breakdown
- A network of strong and authentic relationships able to replicate the support offered by an extended family
- Improved experience of peer support
- Improved sibling contact
- Improved process and experience of respite care
- Improved skills, confidence and role satisfaction for foster carers
- Improved levels of carer retention and recruitment
- A strong, robust and resilient structure able to support children, young people and fostering families through times of crisis and transition.
- Improved experience of birth family contact
- Costs saved and costs avoided.
Mockingbird fidelity
Mockingbird is an evidence-based model supported by clear fidelity criteria. Key components of the Mockingbird fidelity checklist include:
- 6-10 satellite homes in a constellation
- Each constellation provides care to 6-18 looked after children and young people and constellation members (both adults and young people) should be diverse in terms of age, experience, strengths and needs.
- Constellation supported to build a micro community based on an extended family concept.
- Hub home is geographically close to the satellite homes
- Hub home has two spare Mockingbird beds available for sleepovers by the constellation.
- Hub home carer is available nearly 24/7
- Hub home carer hosts monthly constellation meetings and provides planned and spontaneous opportunities for social events and interactions between the hub home and the satellite families.
- The ‘Mockingbird liaison worker’ role is a key support for hub home carer to prevent burnout.
- Collaborative working – the service must support the hub home carer and members of the constellation to problem solve (e.g. deciding when to offer crisis respite, delegation of authority, etc.)
If you would like to know more about Mockingbird and how to join our new Mockingbird constellation as a new foster carer, please call 01482 612 800, email fostering@hullcc.gov.uk or visit www.HullFostering.co.uk for further details.
