The Carer Recruitment and Retention Taskforce has finalised a new carer exit interview to capture and learn from the experiences of carers leaving the child protection system, and understand the common challenges they face.
It recognises the wealth of knowledge that carers accumulate and the variety of factors that can lead to their decision to stop being a carer, such as health issues, age, the young person in their turning 18 or difficulties navigating the child protection system.
The survey will be built into carer support agencies’ existing exit processes and can be completed online, by phone or face-to-face within 4 weeks of the carer leaving.
Carer support agencies and kinship care services will receive survey results from their own carers, while the Department for Child Protection will collate information from across the sector to look for commonalities and trends. This standardised approach will help to improve the way we work together and will inform the information, support and training that is made available to carers.
The survey questions will also gather information to help with future carer recruitment and retention strategies, covering topics such as:
- motivations for becoming a carer
- reasons for stopping being a carer
- training, information and resources
- support from the department and the carer’s support worker.
The exit survey, an information sheet for carers and a document outlining the exit interview process is now available for carer support agencies on the step-by-step website.
Step-by-step is a website specifically for family-based care agencies, containing resources relating to the assessment, training and support of carers. Login details can be obtained by contacting Foster Care Services.