At Sunbeam, we are proud of our standards and the support and training that we provide to our foster carers. We are driven by children’s needs, which means we take time with every child to tackle the problems he/she faces while encouraging positive behaviour as well as offering support with education, employability, and addiction and self-harm issues. We would welcome you take the opportunity to speak to one of our existing foster carers to hear this first hand. We have a good record in maintaining placements and this is due to our excellent matching process at the placement stage and also our prompt actions to address any concerns quickly.
Excellent support from your social worker
- 4 weekly visits and more regular where beneficial for everyone
- 30 team members with 5+ years at Sunbeam showing our experience and commitment
- 11 team members with 10+ years with Sunbeam!
- Contactable 24 hours and always there for you
- Social Work England registered and qualified
- Caseload levels below 10 foster carers on average for each social worker to ensure a high level of 1:1 support
- 30 team members with 5+ years’ service at Sunbeam showing our experience and loyalty
- 11 team members with 10+ years’ service!
Passionate ownership
- Three social worker owners that set up Sunbeam up in 2000
- Over 90 years of fostering experience
Our Sunbeam Board, Muhammad, Karamjit, Naseem and Helen commented, “We are committed to delivering positive outcomes for all children and young persons. Sunbeam will always look to go the extra step and we are proud of the achievements from our foster carers and staff team. Hearing about children’s achievements is fantastic and at the heart of our agency.”
Loyalty and commitment from our foster carers!
- 40 carers with over 10+ years with Sunbeam
- 20 carers with 15+ years with Sunbeam
- Combined length of support of 4,000 years together from all foster carers
The Sunbeam Family
- All our foster carers, team members and children are hugely important to us!
- We look after each other and celebrate birthdays together each and other achievements
- All managers meet annually at our Meet the Managers events
- Celebrations are held for our year end, Christmas, Eid and other events
- Annual children awards are held each year to celebrate achievements together
Strong Local Authority relationships
- Over 75 meetings held annually on a 1:1 basis with our local authorities
- Local authority frameworks held with all key local authorities
Commissioning strength
- 100% tender success rate with Local authorities
- 20 key contracts held to secure referrals on a preferred basis
High referral levels
- 500 referrals received each week
- 100% response to all referrals
Excellent placement team and resource
- 5 dedicated team members – no other responsibilities other than to secure placements
- 35 years of experience and support at Sunbeam
- 160 hours per week committed to contacting carers to match placements
Our Senior Placement Officer, Roshin Varghese commented “We are passionate about meeting children’s needs through effective matching to meet and exceed the needs for each child or young person.”
Positive care leaver outcomes
- 95% of care leavers in education or employment
Membership of Foster Talk
- All carers have membership with Foster Talk
- Access to support on tax, legal and fostering issues (including independent support for complaints)
- Foster carer insurance
- Max card allocation for dedicated discounts on retailers for foster carers
Management experience
- Senior team members have 80 years combined service with Sunbeam across 8 team members!
Data security matters
- Focus on data protection and ISO27001 accreditation held for Cyber Security
Placement success and outcomes
- Over 800 children and supported last year
- Since 2000, over 7,000 children supported to deliver positive outcomes. Amazing support from our carers and staff to achieve this together!
Local support network
- 11 local offices (including resource centres) to ensure we are local to our foster carers for support
- 200 carers under 20 miles from our offices or local support centre
Excellent staff resources
- 100 team members to support our carers
- 1 team member to every 4 carers
- Investor in People Award held
Diversity and connecting
- Team members from 15 different countries and background
- Over 20+ languages covered
- Black Lives Matters supported and promoted
Supporting asylum seekers
- Excellent experience of supporting unaccompanied asylum seekers
- Sunbeam has supported 1,000+ young persons across the last 20 years
- All our handbooks are in different language to support young persons
- Experience is held by our foster carers to support young persons following the potential difficulties from their home country, family and journey
Placement stability
- Average placement length of 650+ days for our children and young persons. This compares to the national average of 386 days (Source: DFE – 2020)
- 6,800 years combined length of all placements for children and young persons
Brilliant activities for children
- 100 events for children across the year
- Events including awards, summer club activities, beach trips, day trips, sports and fun days, pantomimes and easter egg hunts!
- Regular competitions!
- Weekly education workshop with our education consultant
Excellent training
- 125 training courses delivered annually together
- Access to 50 bespoke online training courses
- Regular Skills to Foster for new carers
Access to therapeutic support
- Monthly therapeutic support groups – 30+ group sessions held last year
- Contact and support from our qualified therapist
Competitive carer payments and support levels
- Carer payments up to £700 per week (per child or young person) – depending on the needs and support to the child or young person
Focused 1:1 induction when joining Sunbeam
- Interactive and dedicated time from your social workers
- Personal welcome from Senior Management to all new carers
Experience and support for enhanced and complex placements
- Support from Sunbeam+ through increased training, 1:1 support and carer payment
- Experience and support to 250+ enhanced and complex children (including parent and child placements)
Over 50% of our referrals are for enhanced or complex children or young persons
Keeping children together
- Excellent knowledge and support for siblings placements
- Over 2,000 siblings successfully supported
- Current placements include sibling placements for 5 children together
Positive values and care
- A dedicated service around the needs of looked after children to ensure placement stability
- A thriving children support group for looked after children and your own birth children
Strong focus on quality
- At Sunbeam, we are proud of our standards and the support and training that we provide to our foster carers
- Excellent care standard and support across the group
Career Path
- We offer a career path into social work and further national qualifications of fostering. Currently, we offer over 100 different trainings to our foster carers
- You will receive full support at all stages and help with anything you are unsure of
