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Sparks fostering is a member of the NAFP – the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers. when you are deciding which fostering provider to use to become a foster parent, membership of this organisation is worth noting because membership has numerous benefits, which will ultimately impact on your experience as a foster parent, and therefore on the wellbeing of the children in your care. These benefits come under two broad categories – improving the ability of the fostering provider to give guidance and support to its parents, and amplifying the voice of foster parents on the national stage.
There are three key elements of the NAFP which means that its members are likely to be able to better assist you in becoming a great foster parent. These are:
IFPs which are part of the NAFP benefit from the close ties that the NAFP creates between different IFPs. For instance, innovations made by one IFP which allow for safer, or more effective fostering can be shared, to all other members. This means that members of the NAFP are likely to be more well informed of the current cutting edge of fostering practice. This in turn can give you confidence as a foster parent that you will receive guidance which is accurate, effective, and which is the result of the experience of a vast number of foster parents across the country.
Furthermore, NAFP members commit to the goal of continually improving their services, and they cooperate with other fostering agencies to do this. The emphasis on constant improvement, and on cooperation, means that you can be confident that the member IFPs are focussed solely on the wellbeing of the foster children and parents that they deal with, rather than on competing with other providers.
One of the other key roles of the NAFP is to speak for IFPs on the national stage. They do this in three main ways:
This is hugely important, because fostering is a highly regulated sector; all fostering agencies must be registered with Ofsted. This means that government policy can have a huge impact on the ability of foster providers to carry out their roles in the best way possible. Individual IFPs may be too small to have the resources, time, or manpower to communicate effectively with government and influence policy, so by joining forces as part of the NAFP, they can have their voices heard by effectively pooling their resources. As a foster parent, this means that using an NAFP member as your fostering provider will make it more likely that your voice will have an impact on local or national policy, which contributes to the national improvement of foster care.
