North East Lincolnshire Council has become the first in England to use an app for recruiting social care staff to find foster carers.
It said it has begun to use the Care Friends app – which is also being piloted by Foster Wales – to improve awareness and attract more people towards foster care.
It uses a points based referral system to recruit carers, reflecting its initial use to make the referrals process for recruiting social workers easier.
Since it was launched in 2020 the Care Friends App has generated 250,000 referrals for candidates and is currently used by 2,500 care settings in the UK, Ireland and Australia.
Pioneering approach
Margaret Cracknell, portfolio holder for children and education at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “We are incredibly proud to be the first authority in England to launch this innovative app for foster carer recruitment.
“This pioneering approach underscores our commitment to ensuring that local children can remain within our community, supported by dedicated foster carers.
“By placing foster carers at the heart of the recruitment process, we are not only enhancing our efforts but also recognising the invaluable contributions they make every day.”
Neil Cracknell, CEO and founder of Care Friends, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with North East Lincolnshire Council in the first English deployment of our app in foster care. As soon as they learned of the pilot results emerging from foster carers in Wales they were confident it would boost their commitment to providing loving families locally for every local child in care who needs them.
“We can’t wait to see the impact once the app is rolled out across the authority’s foster carer community.”
North East Lincolnshire said another 27 local authorities in England have confirmed plans to adopt the app this year, and that discussions are ongoing with another 60.
