Mulberry Foster Care launches New Council Tax Subsidy Initiative.

The team at Mulberry Foster Care have told us more

“This Foster Care Fortnight, we are proud to announce that in a national crisis in recruitment of Foster Carers, Mulberry Foster Care are continuing their ethos of looking after carers so they can look after children in their home by subsidising Foster Carer Council Tax monthly payments.

Background

Mulberry Foster Care, founded by Shaun Burnett and Andrew Robinson, have provided care for many children since the agency’s formation in 2016. Shaun and Andrew, both social workers for over 15 years, have created an agency with children at the forefront of every decision and of every employee and foster carer within the agency.

We are a small independent fostering agency that has our carers and children in care at our heart. We cover 27 local authorities in the Midlands and across Wales. We offer comprehensive support to our carers throughout the process and into their fostering journey.

We have continually expanded our Therapeutic intervention and in October 2023 we overhauled our current building to create a dedicated therapy suite and a conference center. The space comprises of a dedicated play therapy room, mentor room and state of the art sensory room.

The initiative – We look after you so you can look after others.

Last year, the number of Foster Carers leaving the care sector was larger than the number of new recruits. This is a national issue and is causing significant issues for children in care due to Local Authorities not having homes for children in desperate need of them.

Mulberry Foster Care firmly believe in supporting our foster carers who do an incredible job 27/4 365 days a year. Whilst we have historically provided generous allowances, events, training and direct 1:1 support, the time has come to go one step further. Due to the current shortage of Foster Carers, Mulberry are committed to subsidising Foster Carers council tax whilst they have children in placement.

“ It has been evident in the past 12 months that people are not considering becoming a foster carer. This can be for a number of reasons but the current economic uncertainty and cost of living crisis has certainly played a role which is why we are proud to announce this new scheme’ Matthew Smith, Campaign Manager Mulberry Foster Care.

‘As an agency, we strive to always a make a difference. This is consistent with our new scheme to look after our foster carers, so they can look after others in their care. Assisting carers with their council tax bill regardless of where they live, we hope, will enable people to consider taking the step to becoming a foster carer. This scheme also applies to current foster carers who would like to transfer to Mulberry Foster Care’ Shaun Burnett, Director, Mulberry Foster Care