False Confidence in the Foster Carer Recruitment Pipeline!
As a senior fostering manager, your recruitment reports may look reasonably positive throughout the year.
There are applicants in assessment.
Initial visits are taking place.
Panels are scheduled.
The pipeline appears to be moving.
But how much of that pipeline was created by this year’s recruitment activity—and how much was carried forward from the previous year?
This is where false confidence can develop.
A healthy-looking assessment pipeline in May, June or July may be made up largely of applicants who first enquired six, nine or even twelve months earlier.
The current recruitment strategy may not yet have generated enough new applicants to replace them.
Throughout the year, the figures can still look reassuring.
There are people progressing.
Approvals are being achieved.
Activity is being reported.
Then the end-of-year reality arrives.
The number of new households approved is lower than expected.
The pipeline for the following year is weak.
Placement pressure continues.
Recruitment targets are missed.
The conclusion is often that more enquiries are needed, so additional money is placed into advertising.
But the real issue may have started much earlier.
Too few new applicants entered the pipeline.
Enquiries were not converted consistently.
People withdrew without their reasons being fully understood.
Applicants took longer than expected to progress.
The service relied too heavily on the previous year’s pipeline.
Senior leaders need more than a total number of people “in process”.
They need to know:
How many applicants entered the pipeline this year?
How many are progressing from each stage?
How long are they remaining at each stage?
Where are they withdrawing?
How many realistic approvals will the current pipeline actually produce?
And what will remain in the pipeline when the current cohort reaches panel?
The most dangerous recruitment pipeline is not always an empty one.
It is one that looks healthy until it is too late to correct it.
Now is the time to look beyond the headline figures and test whether your current recruitment activity is genuinely building next year’s fostering capacity.
“Would your pipeline still look strong if every applicant carried over from last year was removed?”
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