Recruitment & Retention Services for Fostering Agencies
"Stop the Recruitment Leak.
End the Resignation Cycle. Protect Your Service."
Fostering agencies across the UK face two persistent challenges:
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Generating enquiries that never become approved carers.
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Losing experienced carers without fully understanding why.
Both recruitment and retention require significant time, expertise, and resources. My work focuses on helping fostering agencies strengthen both recruitment and retention processes.
Sector Experience
My name is Viv Doolan. I have 15 years of fostering sector experience as a Supervising Social Worker and Independent Reviewing Officer.
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Alongside my social work experience, I have developed extensive expertise in sales, marketing, and recruitment systems, generating over 35,000 fostering enquiries for fostering agencies of all sizes across the UK.
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By offering my services on a fractional basis, agencies can access senior-level expertise across multiple disciplines without the need for heavy salary expenditure
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This ensures that resources remain focused on supporting foster carers and children.
Recruitment Support Services
Recruitment remains one of the most resource-intensive functions within fostering services. Generating enquiries is only one part of the challenge - converting those enquiries into approved carers requires a well-structured and responsive recruitment journey.
Recruitment services I offer:
Marketing, Advertising & Digital Media Content Creation
Fostering Enquiry Generation
High Converting Nurture Sequences to increase conversion to application
High-Converting media, landing pages, and nurture videos
Initial enquiry screenings and booking of home visits
Home Visits (Location Dependent)
Recruitment Pipeline Oversight to identify bottlenecks and streamline processes
Retention Services
Retention is equally critical. Many agencies invest heavily in recruitment, yet lose experienced carers without fully understanding why.
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Independent retention insight provides a powerful Unique Selling Point (USP) for fostering agencies. It demonstrates to prospective applicants, current carers, and Ofsted that the agency values the foster carer voice enough to invest in independent feedback.
How Independent Retention Insight Works
Anonymous Feedback Channels
Carers are able to share open and honest feedback through an independent service, providing psychological safety and removing concerns about internal judgement or impact on professional relationships.
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This helps agencies understand the real experiences of their carers and identify potential issues before they escalate. Most importantly, this feeds into the Reg 35 monitoring component for Ofsted inspections.
Ongoing Carer Support Access
High-Integrity Independent Exit Interviews
Ongoing Monitoring & Insight Reporting
Mediation & Relationship Support
As a trained mediator, I can support agencies and carers where relationships become strained, helping to restore communication and resolve issues before they result in resignations.
Why This Approach Works
Having worked internally within the fostering sector, I understand both the operational pressures faced by agencies and the lived experience of foster carers.
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While agencies already have statutory feedback channels - such as supervision and reviews - these do not always provide the psychological safety carers need to speak openly.
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Independent insight helps bridge that gap, allowing agencies to access the “soft intelligence” that may otherwise remain hidden.
Ofsted Impact
Independent feedback and consultation provide "Outstanding" indicators for Ofsted. They prove that Leadership & Management are proactively self-monitoring and using honest carer insight to improve practice and drive retention.
A Flexible Fractional Model
By working with agencies on a fractional consultancy basis, services can access senior level expertise across recruitment, marketing, and retention without the cost and complexity of expanding internal teams.​
Discuss Your Recruitment & Retention Needs
If you would like to explore how independent recruitment and retention insight could support your fostering service, you are welcome to arrange an initial conversation.