Stirling, Joanna

<p>Our approach to foster care research is novel because it includes previously unexplored perspectives on the topic: those from marketing, psychology and creative design. Although concepts from these disciplines have been applied to a number of social issues they have, for the most part, been ignored in relation to attracting foster carers. However it is evident that these disciplines have a valuable role to play in raising awareness of foster care and educating the general population on what is involved.</p><p>The results of our research have prompted a number of paradigm shifts in thinking around foster care in Australia.</p><ol><li>First, there is growing recognition of the importance of marketing in relation to foster care and the value of concepts which have traditionally been thought to belong in the commercial sector.</li><li>Second, we have dispelled some of the myths surrounding motivations for foster care, namely that individuals interested in foster caring are driven purely by altruistic motivations. On the contrary, many foster carers acknowledge that they receive benefits from performing the role, for example, personal satisfaction, enjoyment, or community recognition for being a foster carer.</li></ol><p>In addition, our approach to research is novel because the methods we use differ substantially from the way foster care research has previously been conducted. For example:</p><ul><li><strong>Representative, quantitative research design</strong>: Most prior work is qualitative and based on convenience samples. However in the current environment, where recruiting suitable foster carers is difficult, we need to know (i) which factors motivate people to foster a child, (ii) how many potential carers are motivated by each factor, and (iii) how the general population is likely to react to different types of messages communicating these factors. These questions can only be answered using quantitative methodology based on representative samples.</li><li><strong>Inclusion of non-carers</strong>: Although the problem of recruiting enough foster carers is not new, there was little understanding of perceived barriers to foster care of people who have never been foster carers but potentially could be. Research has largely focused on understanding current carers, but this only enables foster care organisations to compete with each other for an existing pool. The aim of the sector must be to increase the size of the overall pool by attracting new foster carers into the system.</li><li><strong>State-of the-art segmentation methodology:</strong> the investigation of motivational and barrier heterogeneity requires <em>a posteriori</em> segmentation analysis. While common in marketing, it is complicated by several critical methodological issues: inherent randomness of the algorithm and inherent sample randomness. We use a recently proposed framework to address this problem and thus ensure that we do not interpret random solutions, but instead reveal or construct the most reliable segmentation solutions.  </li><li><strong>Combining multiple data sources:</strong> including foster carers, caseworkers, child behavioural specialists, clinical psychologists, CEOs of foster care organisations, supervised access workers, adults who were in foster care as children, biological families of foster children and longitudinal caseworker reports of foster placements.</li></ul><p><br />We have made a concerted effort to communicate the results of our research not only to academic audiences but also to industry which can potentially benefit most from the results in a practical sense. Six presentations have been given at key practitioner conferences (e.g. the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Conference) since 2010. In addition results have been presented to the NSW Minister for Families and Community Services, the NSW Department of Families and Community Services Research Department, the Association for Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA) Conference, the Metro South West Out-of-Home Care Inter-agency Group, the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Research Forum and the Out-of-Home Care Southern Forum. Public interest in the findings of our research is also evident by the attention it has received by various media outlets including WIN television news, ABC Illawarra radio, the Australian, the Illawarra Mercury and the South Coast Register.</p><p>Our overall program of research has made numerous contributions to knowledge including: (i) the development of a theoretical model which explains the factors that contribute to successful and unsuccessful foster placements; (ii) understanding knowledge and perceptions of foster care amongst the Australian population; (iii) identification of different segments within the market of potential foster carers, including those characterised by specific combinations of motivations and those who do not become carers because of particular barriers; (iv) identification of the psychological characteristics of different types of foster carers, in particular those who are exceptionally good in the role; (v) identification of the early warning signs of placement breakdown (placements ending before originally planned) ; and (vi) evaluation of the effectiveness of different styles of foster carer advertisements in motivating individuals to become foster carers.</p><p>Using the results of our research, foster care agencies have been able to develop and launch new marketing and recruitment strategies. In the case of our local industry partners alone this has included new television and radio advertisements, re-design of print media, re-thinking of the specific messages being utilised and re-designing the mix of communications channels being employed. In one case it has prompted a complete rebranding of the organisation.</p><p>The ultimate beneficiaries of our research are foster children. By increasing the number of foster carers available, and also increase the number of high quality foster carers, there is a far greater chance that a good match will be found between the specific needs of the child and carers with the skills and qualities that match those needs. Achieving good matches increases the chances that the placement will be stable and not break down prematurely, and this stability is known to be associated with significantly better long term outcomes for foster children, such as improved mental and physical health, and educational and employment outcomes.</p>

<p>Our approach to foster care research is novel because it includes previously unexplored perspectives on the topic: those from marketing, psychology and creative design. Although concepts from these disciplines have been applied to a number of social issues they have, for the most part, been ignored in relation to attracting foster carers. However it is evident that these disciplines have a valuable role to play in raising awareness of foster care and educating the general population on what is involved.</p><p>The results of our research have prompted a number of paradigm shifts in thinking around foster care in Australia.</p><ol><li>First, there is growing recognition of the importance of marketing in relation to foster care and the value of concepts which have traditionally been thought to belong in the commercial sector.</li><li>Second, we have dispelled some of the myths surrounding motivations for foster care, namely that individuals interested in foster caring are driven purely by altruistic motivations. On the contrary, many foster carers acknowledge that they receive benefits from performing the role, for example, personal satisfaction, enjoyment, or community recognition for being a foster carer.</li></ol><p>In addition, our approach to research is novel because the methods we use differ substantially from the way foster care research has previously been conducted. For example:</p><ul><li><strong>Representative, quantitative research design</strong>: Most prior work is qualitative and based on convenience samples. However in the current environment, where recruiting suitable foster carers is difficult, we need to know (i) which factors motivate people to foster a child, (ii) how many potential carers are motivated by each factor, and (iii) how the general population is likely to react to different types of messages communicating these factors. These questions can only be answered using quantitative methodology based on representative samples.</li><li><strong>Inclusion of non-carers</strong>: Although the problem of recruiting enough foster carers is not new, there was little understanding of perceived barriers to foster care of people who have never been foster carers but potentially could be. Research has largely focused on understanding current carers, but this only enables foster care organisations to compete with each other for an existing pool. The aim of the sector must be to increase the size of the overall pool by attracting new foster carers into the system.</li><li><strong>State-of the-art segmentation methodology:</strong> the investigation of motivational and barrier heterogeneity requires <em>a posteriori</em> segmentation analysis. While common in marketing, it is complicated by several critical methodological issues: inherent randomness of the algorithm and inherent sample randomness. We use a recently proposed framework to address this problem and thus ensure that we do not interpret random solutions, but instead reveal or construct the most reliable segmentation solutions.  </li><li><strong>Combining multiple data sources:</strong> including foster carers, caseworkers, child behavioural specialists, clinical psychologists, CEOs of foster care organisations, supervised access workers, adults who were in foster care as children, biological families of foster children and longitudinal caseworker reports of foster placements.</li></ul><p><br />We have made a concerted effort to communicate the results of our research not only to academic audiences but also to industry which can potentially benefit most from the results in a practical sense. Six presentations have been given at key practitioner conferences (e.g. the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Conference) since 2010. In addition results have been presented to the NSW Minister for Families and Community Services, the NSW Department of Families and Community Services Research Department, the Association for Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA) Conference, the Metro South West Out-of-Home Care Inter-agency Group, the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Research Forum and the Out-of-Home Care Southern Forum. Public interest in the findings of our research is also evident by the attention it has received by various media outlets including WIN television news, ABC Illawarra radio, the Australian, the Illawarra Mercury and the South Coast Register.</p><p>Our overall program of research has made numerous contributions to knowledge including: (i) the development of a theoretical model which explains the factors that contribute to successful and unsuccessful foster placements; (ii) understanding knowledge and perceptions of foster care amongst the Australian population; (iii) identification of different segments within the market of potential foster carers, including those characterised by specific combinations of motivations and those who do not become carers because of particular barriers; (iv) identification of the psychological characteristics of different types of foster carers, in particular those who are exceptionally good in the role; (v) identification of the early warning signs of placement breakdown (placements ending before originally planned) ; and (vi) evaluation of the effectiveness of different styles of foster carer advertisements in motivating individuals to become foster carers.</p><p>Using the results of our research, foster care agencies have been able to develop and launch new marketing and recruitment strategies. In the case of our local industry partners alone this has included new television and radio advertisements, re-design of print media, re-thinking of the specific messages being utilised and re-designing the mix of communications channels being employed. In one case it has prompted a complete rebranding of the organisation.</p><p>The ultimate beneficiaries of our research are foster children. By increasing the number of foster carers available, and also increase the number of high quality foster carers, there is a far greater chance that a good match will be found between the specific needs of the child and carers with the skills and qualities that match those needs. Achieving good matches increases the chances that the placement will be stable and not break down prematurely, and this stability is known to be associated with significantly better long term outcomes for foster children, such as improved mental and physical health, and educational and employment outcomes.</p>