A multi-disciplinary, ethical and collaborative approach

Who are evolve

evolve Therapeutic Children’s Services provide specialist fostering and residential services across Kent and South London, supported by a therapeutic team.

evolve’s group structure allows for each individual service to focus on delivery and outcomes.

Our multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach transforms the lives of children and young people in our care, impacted by trauma, through a range of evidence-based specialist therapeutic interventions.

We ensure every child and young person in our care gets to experience a life full of opportunity, nurture, play and safety. We are a forward thinking, creative and progressive organisation, where we actively seek the views of children and young people, and these views further develop practise and delivery.

We do things differently, we are ethical, we are unique. We are evolve

Our vision

Our values

To ensure the needs of all our children, young people, staff and foster parents are safely and responsibly met, evolve provide a multi-disciplinary, ethical and collaborative approach to children's services.

INTEGRITY

We operate with integrity and within an open culture, which demands cooperation, collaboration, communication and challenge.

ETHICAL

We are focussed and ensure attention to detail to achieve highly successful, social, emotional, psychological and educational outcomes for all children and young people in our care.

COLLABORATIVE

Children's social care is at breaking point. We need radical services and thinking to ensure we do not fail future generations of children (in or out of care). evolve's approach is innovative. We work in partnership with Local Authorities, Clinicians, our multidisciplinary team, schools, charities and other specialist services to create positive and lasting change for our children and young people.

SAFE

Social care isn't about statistics. It's about individuals. Social care isn't transactional. It's about relationships. We are about recruiting the right people with the right skills. We develop safely, ensuring all needs of our children, young people, foster parents and teams are met effectively and responsibly.

We are about recruiting the right people with the right skills. We develop safely, ensuring all needs of our children, young people, foster parents and teams are met effectively and responsibly.

Your team

Our multi-disciplinary team includes experienced and qualified professionals, with backgrounds in fostering, social work, mental health and residential children’s services.

Our therapeutic ethos runs through our core, which means every member of our team is therapeutically trained.

Our decades of experience and our therapeutic approach ensures all children and young people in our care are sensitively supported and well-equipped to address and understand previous trauma to move forward more positively with their lives.

In my 30 year social care career, the needs and complexities of our children have changed significantly. We cannot, and will not, approach service delivery with outdated practises that are no longer fit for purpose or fail to positively impact children. The impact of trauma and our children’s needs are more diverse. We must deliver services that are collaborative and progressive to meet these needs.

Jonathan Toomey- evolve Founder

Our services fostering

Deciding to foster is a huge decision and not one to be taken lightly.

The team at evolve have decades of experience so will be able to answer any questions you may have about becoming a foster parent.

The process is nothing to fear. It takes between 16-20 weeks as we need to make sure all legal requirements are met and that your fostering assessment is completed to a high standard.

With evolve, you will receive comprehensive training and development opportunities. You will have experienced a Supervising Social Worker who has a protected caseload of no more than 7 families.

Not all children and young people referred to us require a therapeutic approach but as a new foster parent you will be required to attend our 12 week therapeutic re-parenting programme (undertaken over 3 sessions in four months).

In addition to our therapeutic approaches we also provide parent and child and other fostering arrangements. As all children in care will have experienced trauma, and irrelevant of the type of fostering, understanding the therapeutic approaches and how we apply them, is paramount.

Every family is unique

evolve understands that you are unique, as is your family and the children and young people that need families to look after them. The evolve team is made up of foster parents from a range of diverse backgrounds and experiences. As long as you can provide a safe, stable and nurturing home we would love to hear from you.

Types of fostering

There are many types of fostering that are noted below. You can specify your preference during the assessment process.

Short term- caring for a child on a short-term basis, from a night or two and up to one year, and often while the child is going through care proceedings.

Long-term- a more permanent home for a child or young person, which often lasts until they reach independent age.

Respite- supporting a foster family who may need a break. This is often prearranged for set lengths of time.

Parent and Child- placing a child and birth parent in your care to build upon skills and knowledge in a nurturing environment to enable vulnerable parents to eventually live independently.

We welcome enquiries from couples, single applicants, households with children and without, whatever gender or ethnicity.

Whoever you are, whatever your experience, speak to our Fostering Advisor today to start your journey to becoming a Foster Parent with evolve.

Therapeutic fostering

Therapeutic fostering is a specialist type of fostering that supports young people who have been impacted by trauma, abuse or any other severe disruption prior to being placed in care.

By parenting therapeutically, you are ensuring that those who require additional support can address their needs in a safe and nurturing environment. It is not ‘soft’ parenting but instead understands that the child’s behaviour is a way of communicating.

By setting routines and boundaries, the young person can begin to heal from their trauma and start to make sense of their world.

We have a multi-disciplinary clinical team that provide assessments, training, direct work and strategies to support those in our care and those who are caring for them.

More importantly we offer this care immediately, cutting the NHS waiting times that currently stands at a 3 year wait for looked after children. Our clinical team don’t just support our young people. Therapeutic techniques put the foster parent at the core of their learning. Reflective practice and self-care are paramount to ensuring a successful fostering arrangement and foster parents are supported by the therapeutic team.

'evolve's approach is real, relevant to children's individual needs and is genuinely therapeutic.'

S- Headteacher

evolve benefits

Here’s what to expect when joining evolve:

• Support for you, the children in your care and your entire household, because we know fostering takes lots of support to work and be successful.
  
  
• No wait or costs for assessments as our multidisciplinary team offer mental health and neuro-development assessments immediately, at no cost to you.
  
  
• Unrivalled fostering allowance of up to £950 per child per week
  
  
• Supervising Social Worker with a protected case load of 7 families, meaning more immediate and personable responses.
  
  
• Support all day, every day, all year A community conscious service that actively supports our children, and the communities they are part of, through unique and exclusive partnerships.
  
  
• Extensive and appropriate matching, supporting the right start, to support stability, leading to long term outcomes
  
  
• The only fostering service to launch their own community initiativeFOSTival- to raise awareness of fostering, actively challenge misconceptions and stereotypes, and understand the current barriers to social care, all whilst supporting local businesses, charities and families.

Our services - residential

Our trauma-informed residential service ensures our children recieve unrivalled access to our Therapeutic team who all work to an evidence-based model.

The home is registered for 4 young people, aged 7 – 17 years.

We have been successful in recruiting an experienced team, who have undertaken an intensive induction and training programme where a range of core and specialist training has been delivered.

Our nurturing, and truly therapeutic home, begins to support children and young people to heal from their trauma whilst being offered opportunities in which they can thrive.

The residential offering provides specialist 24/7 treatment for children with complex psychological, emotional, and behavioural needs. Our unique residential offering provides therapeutic assessment and treatment and includes a forest school, sensory spaces and a safe and nurturing environment in which children and young people can begin to heal from their trauma and make sense of their world.

Staffing ratios are on a 1.1 basis, with additional Clinical support from our internal Clinical Leads, Psychologists and Psychotherapists. Our staff receive ongoing clinical training, and monthly reflective practice.

Our services - therapeutic

We are one of the only Children's Service in the South East with our own inhouse multi-disciplinary team.

Every child we work with receives a comprehensive mental health assessment.

The team is led by Clinical Lead Jill Hanney who has over 30 years experience and is a specialist in developmental trauma for care experienced young people.

Each therapeutic package is evidence-based and delivers bespoke mental health assessments, specialist training, therapeutic consultancy and direct work that ensures the individual needs of every child and young person in our care is met responsively and effectively.

'Lots of services talk about the importance of self-regulation and self-care. evolve makes sure that actually happens.'

S- evolve Foster Parent

Ofsted

Our fostering and Residential services are regulated by Ofsted.

evolve Residential Services- 2802269

evolve Therapeutic Fostering- 2606502

Fostering

evolve Therapeutic Fostering received Ofsted Registration in August 2021. Our first inspection, in October 2022, rated us as ‘GOOD’.

Their comments included:

‘The agency’s focus is very clearly on ensuring that all necessary measures are in place to meet children’s needs.’

‘Children have positive experiences that contribute to their ongoing development, and which prepare them for their future.’

Residential

evolve Therapeutic Residential Services received Ofsted Registration in October 2024.

Working with us - staff

We are:

• An experienced, energetic and passionate team with a family ethos.
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays
• Hybrid working
• Mileage paid at 50p per mile
• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Birthdays off.
• Open door policy with all Management and Directors.
• Exciting future for our growing fostering and residential services.
• Bespoke, CPD Accredited Training in Therapeutic Parenting and beyond.
• Monthly supervision
• Personal Development Plan
• Reflective practice
• Pension scheme
• 6 monthly check-ins
• Annual Dinner Dance

Working with us - foster parents

With evolve, you will be:

• Enabling a child or young person to be treated as the individual they are, whilst providing them with the loving, nurturing home they deserve, rather than them being treated as a statistic.
  
  
• Treated as a professional, within a team that is passionate about challenging stereotypes, battling misconceptions all whilst supporting the local community.

evolve will continue to support you with:

• The most current, effective and evidence-based training from a multidisciplinary team with over 50 years’ experience
  
  
• Extensive and considerate matching with young people to ensure long lasting, effective fostering arrangements.
  
  
• A competitive fostering allowance of up to £950 per week, per child, plus other benefits.
  
  
• Quick and efficient responses from your Supervising Social Worker that have a protected caseload of no more than 7 families.

Testimonials