About The Hazel Project Medway Kent
About usThe Hazel Project is an innovative, family and child-focused independent fostering service with a head office in Kent and operating across the South-East of England. We work in partnership with our foster parents and Local Authorities to continuously provide the highest standard of care for fostered children.
There are over 300 fostering organisations in the UK, many of which claim that they are ‘the best’…what makes us different?
We are unusual in that we have people at all levels of our organisation who have direct first-hand experience of fostering. Our combined experiences influence our thinking and our practice and we believe that this is a significant factor in our success.
We work together with our families to achieve an environment where children and young people can thrive. Our dedicated families consistently form lasting relationships with their children which allows them to reach their potential and overcome the challenges that have been present in the past.
We put the needs of children and young people first.
We encourage children and young people to develop respect for themselves and others.
We provide foster families with the skills that they need to carry out their responsibilities.
We listen to the views of children, young people, and their families, as well as of foster parents, foster parents’ own children, and our staff, when planning and carrying out all of our activities.
We deliver services that recognise and build on the strengths of children and young people from all cultures and religious backgrounds, in ways that meet their needs and help them achieve their full potential.
Our purpose is to provide the highest standard of care to the children and young people who join us. These children and young people are vulnerable and experiencing difficulties in their lives, they require support and care to provide them with stability and promote resilience.
We deliver a service built upon honesty and integrity that complies with all relevant laws and regulations but challenges where necessary any areas of doubt that we feel may hinder a child or foster parent’s development. This approach enables our foster parents to make confident decisions.
We provide support and guidance of the highest quality to our foster families, recognising that in order for them to consistently meet the needs of children and young people in their care, they need to feel well supported.
All matching has been done with the utmost care and respect, paying particular attention to children’s specific needs and where relevant, their cultural, religious and ethnic background.
We promote safeguarding all children by assisting our dedicated foster parents to deliver the highest level of care.
We protect and secure our foster parent’s recordings, recognising them as important and valuable information.
We guarantee that all our foster parents are assessed and provided with training to meet a variety of children’s needs.
We respectfully store and maintain all information regarding our service in a manner that is both secure and compliant.
We encourage and enable educational and personal achievements for all our children and young people.
Our foster parents have a tailored training program created in line with their individual aims and ambitions.
Our foster parents routinely meet all the requirements of a child’s care plan, including contact and health arrangements where applicable.
Our foster parents receive regular supervision with their fostering supervisor including monthly home visits, weekly telephone calls and monthly group meetings. In addition to this, fostering supervisors review foster parent’s recordings on a regular basis.
Foster parents have a robust annual home review.
All our family households have a comprehensive health and safety assessment which exceeds industry standards and reflects the importance that we place on keeping children and families safe.
Our out-of-hours service is highly experienced and provides not only advice to our foster parents but also prompt and comprehensive placement findings to Local Authorities.
All families are registered with Fostering Network through our organisational subscription.
All families have the opportunity to engage in specialist and informal events.
“Really positive feedback from the children’s Mum to their foster parent in the PEP meetings today who called her a diamond. She thanked her for all she is doing and how well the children are thriving, particularly noting swimming sessions and confidence in the water.”
“During a meeting today, the Social Worker for Henry commented how amazingly well Jen has looked after him. She said he has made great progress and Jen has given him a really good start in life. She thanked Jen for the care that she has provided.”
With a shortage of 6500 foster families across the UK, and record numbers of children entering the care system, we have never needed new families more. If you are interested in fostering