Independent therapeutic fostering across Kent, Medway and South London. Small enough that everyone here knows your name, and staffed well enough that someone answers when you call.
Across the sector, around half of foster parents leave within their first year. A third of ours have been with us over three years, and we were only founded in 2021.
Evolve was founded in 2021 by Jonathan Toomey and Alison Finn, bringing together 50 years of combined experience in specialist children's services. We were set up to do fostering the way the two of them had spent their careers arguing it should be done.
We deliver specialist children's services by partnering with people in the sector who share the same drive to modernise, because the needs of the children coming into care have changed and a lot of services haven't.
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 We cannot, and will not, approach service delivery with outdated practices that are no longer fit for purpose.Jonathan ToomeyFounder and CEO
Six things every Evolve foster parent has from the day they are approved.
Support all day, every day, all year. Not a rota of strangers reading your file for the first time.
Our own in-house clinical team assess and treat immediately, instead of the three-year NHS wait most children in care face.
Supervising Social Workers here hold no more than seven families, so you get a proper answer quickly.
A bespoke 12-month training and development plan, plus the therapeutic re-parenting course every Evolve foster parent completes.
We match extensively and honestly, because an arrangement that lasts is worth more to a child than one that starts quickly.
Monthly reflective practice, clinical drop-ins, FosterTalk membership and first access to FOSTival.
Allowances, respite, grants and the referral scheme are all set out in one place.
One core priority: services that are impactful and deliver meaningful change for the children and young people in our care. It is not complicated. A child who is supported in a safe, nurturing home where their individual needs are met has every chance of thriving.
Our approach is simple enough to say in one line: we do what we say we do. We actively seek the views of the child, we prioritise safeguarding, and we treat foster parents as the professionals they are.
We operate in an open culture, which demands co-operation, communication and challenge.
Attention to detail, aimed at social, emotional, psychological and educational outcomes for every child.
We work in partnership with local authorities, clinicians, schools, charities and specialist services.
Social care isn't transactional. It is about relationships, and about recruiting the right people with the right skills.
Transferring is more common, and more straightforward, than most carers are told. Nothing happens to your current arrangement until you decide it should.
The four leads you would deal with most. There is a bigger team behind them.
Over 30 years in fostering. Set up Evolve in 2021.
Accredited CBT psychotherapist and EMDR practitioner, 30 years in developmental trauma, and a foster carer herself for fifteen of them.
Qualified as a social worker in 2005, with extensive experience in independent fostering, management and quality assurance.
Leads the fostering team day to day.
From a school teacher, an Independent Reviewing Officer, and foster parents who came to us from other agencies.
We have never come across a fostering service that is as committed to doing the absolute best for children and their foster parents as Evolve.ESchool teacher
Going to panel with previous agencies felt like walking into the Dragon's Den. With Evolve it's the complete opposite.LEvolve foster parent
Lots of services talk about the importance of self-regulation and self-care. Evolve makes sure that actually happens.SEvolve foster parent
We are one piece of the puzzle. The community a young person grows up in matters just as much, so we back the organisations doing that work: the Young Lives Foundation, our charitable partner in Kent, East Kent Hospitals Charity, and Dynamic Sports Coaching.
FOSTival, our own festival, brought over a thousand people together in its first year and raised £500 for the Young Lives Foundation.
More about our community Work
Leave your details and one of our fostering advisers will call you back, usually within one working day. No obligation, and no hard sell.
You talk to someone who knows the answers, not a call centre reading a script.
Ask everything you want to ask, then decide in your own time.