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Welcome to Heath Farm

Heath Farm is an independent fostering agency with a holistic, wraparound care approach for children who have complex needs. We work with more than 70 foster carers and over 100 foster children. Part of National Fostering Group, we are based in Whitstable, Kent and operate throughout London, Kent and Essex.

Office Details

Address
1st Floor Marlowe House
Markerstudy Business Park
Whitstable
CT5 3FE

Phone number
01227 931 778

General email
[email protected]

Social Media

Opening Hours

  • Mon - Fri 9am-5pm
  • Sat & Sun Closed

Who are Heath Farm?

Heath Farm was founded in 1993 and was one of the first independent fostering organisations in England. Specialising in therapeutic foster care, we grew and adopted the model of multi-disciplinary working operating from a single site – a wraparound service for looked after children.

This wraparound model of care supports children who have complex needs, while working closely with local authorities and the child’s family. Heath Farm pioneered this approach in the early 90s.

We’ve worked hard to build strong, well-established links with local authorities and we were rated as GOOD in our latest Ofsted inspection. As a proud member of National Fostering Group’s fostering family of agencies, we are LILAC certified, in honour of our high quality standards.

“Therapy runs through the veins of Heath Farm. Our staff members are trained in therapeutic practice and all our foster carers undergo training in therapeutic parenting. The aim of this approach is to look beyond the child’s behaviour to understand why they are behaving in a particular way. By depersonalising the behaviour, it is possible to work with it differently. The language we use is important. 

“We avoid words like ‘bad’ and ‘naughty’ and we rarely use the term ‘respite’, preferring instead to call it a sleepover which has a more normal feel. By saying to children ‘help me to understand the way you feel’ we hope to encourage a discussion rather than apportioning any blame.”

Neil McCarthy, Responsible Individual

People from all walks of life can become a carer. You can help to inspire a generation of vulnerable children and young people to find their way in the world. You can help us build an incredible future for them. If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer with Heath Farm, please get in touch with us today.

OFSTED report

Download our reports
  We have informative guides for children and young people aged between 5 - 10 and 11 - 18 you may find interesting.

About Heath Farm

Our aim is to provide children with stability within their foster family. We have a highly qualified therapy team on hand to support foster carers and staff teams, working on an informal pop-in basis or via formal, structured appointments. 

With an outstanding team of carers and staff, who specialise in providing therapeutic care for children with complex needs, we provide four key services. These are:

  • Foster care
  • Education
  • Therapy
  • Contact

We work alongside six independent therapists who support children affected by trauma and difficult past events. The majority of children are tier 2 and tier 3, who tend to have complex needs and require a package of support, including therapy. 

Each child’s therapeutic journey begins at the point of referral and 40-50% of foster children have face-to-face therapy. The therapeutic approach is based around an evidence-based theoretical framework, led by clinical psychologists. 

We equip our foster carers with everything needed to do a great job – to offer children and young people in your care the best opportunities to live the life they deserve, and prepare them for a happy and independent adulthood.

A high level of support is crucial for foster carers. You can pick up the phone 24 hours a day and talk to someone who knows them and their circumstances. Our foster carers receive exceptional training and support to make the role a genuinely rewarding experience for you and your family, and equally positive for the child in your care. This includes core training and development courses, plus specialist training to support you to cope with particular challenges. 

Our foster carers can claim a wide range of perks and benefits, like free membership to The Fostering Network, Max Cards,high street discounts, invitations to family activities and events, and much more.

“Support is about having confidence in your fostering agency that you will get a robust response to your issue or concern or simply a listening ear.”

Neil McCarthy, Responsible Individual

Highly specialised ‘Mockingbird’ model

Heath Farm is one of five independent fostering agencies in the UK that run the Mockingbird model, which was developed in the US and is underpinned by university research. 

Foster carers work within constellations of a maximum of 10 foster homes.  There are five constellations within the Heath Farm region – 2 in Thanet, 1 in Medway, 1 in Ashford and 1 in Whitstable. Within each constellation there is a hub carer who has two bedrooms vacant in their home. Families in the constellation socialise together, support one another and bring their foster children together to get to know each other. 

If a particular child is having challenges, their foster care can call on the hub carer who can either go into foster home as additional support or provide overnight accommodation for up to four nights to give the foster carer a break. 

The idea is to break the cycle of challenging behaviour and enable the foster carer to undertake repatriation work. The model has been shown to stabilise placements and help children have a better experience of being within a foster family. 

Mentoring, as part of our Wrap Around support

For older children, our family suite is used to provide mentoring support to prepare them for adulthood, with a range of specialist workshops such as cooking and CV writing. Mentoring is an integral part of supporting our young people into independence.

Rapid interventions

We agree upfront, all-inclusive costs with local authorities to cover the full amount of a child’s care. This means there is no need to go back to local authorities for additional funding to cover therapy or mentoring, which causes unnecessary delays. If therapy is required, it can be provided within 24 hours by our specialist therapeutic team.  

Young person participation

Heath Farm aims to normalise the experience for children in care, reducing any institutionalised elements and making our agency feel like a family as much as possible. Our youth participation worker encourages young people to get involved in recruiting and training foster carers, interviewing and developing the foster carer handbook and digital children’s guide.

Cascade of excellence

In order to deliver a high quality child-centred service, our philosophy is that by looking after its staff team really well, we are able to support foster carers really well, who can look after children really well. Everyone is encouraged to raise issues or concerns as soon as they arise to prevent them becoming bigger problems. 

Backed by a leading agency

Heath Farm is proud to be part of the National Fostering Group. Being part of such a large organisation gives us access to a range of additional support services that benefit our foster children, including Duke of Edinburgh Awards, British Explorers and Britannica. We continue to be run according to the same principles and models as we’ve always been, with the additional benefit of specialist support services and backing. 

Specialist Family Time Contact Centre

In May 2021 we opened a new family time contact centre, and with fifteen supervisors we maintain a high-quality service reflecting the needs of children/young people and their birth families, ensuring that children’s needs regarding family time are promoted.
Also providing additional support to carers and children/Young people with the outcome of increasing stability of placements.

Accreditations

We have secured accreditation with NACCC National Association of Child Contact Centre.’

 

 

 

 

Meet our team

Office Updates

  • Virtual Fun Events For All
    Lucy Austin our Youth Participation Worker has organised some super fun events during the summer in lockdown and in the October Half term. Fancy dress competitions, magic shows, party games and crafting competitions – it has been non-stop entertainment at Heath Farm! These events have helped both the children and their carers engage in fun activities, in what has been a very strange time.
  • LA Foster Carers of the Year 2020!
    Michael and Julia were nominated by their young person who wrote to the LA about Michael and Julia being so welcoming and supportive after he’d been with them just three months, also his family were involved with the nomination for the family to receive the award. There were about 150 nominees for this award. The best carers 2020 in Kingston upon Thames LA award ceremony was pre-recorded via online and the link sent to the young person on 9th November 2020 to watch it with his carers. It is usually held in a special ceremony but due to COVID this year it was different. The Bass family were taken by complete surprise when their young person received a phone call from a LA representative to ask the family to watch an award ceremony in which they have won Kingston-upon-Thames LA Foster Carers of the year 2020. We are so very proud of them as this award is an indication of all of their selfless, hard work and dedication.
  • Self-Care Ideas for Kids and Adults
    Throughout lockdown Jemma-Lee, our Youth Participation Social Worker, was our wellbeing champion. She led the way and helped raise the importance of mental health awareness with young people, foster carers and the staff team at Heath Farm by introducing us all to helpful self-care tips to get us all feeling more positive!
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