My name is Janine, and I’m the Home Hub Carer in Exeter. I’m a passionate and nurturing foster carer who believes every child deserves to feel safe, valued, and like they truly belong.
What I love most about the Mockingbird Model is the extended family approach at the heart of the constellation, creating a genuine sense of community and support for both children, young people and foster carers.
I enjoy organising support groups, socials, and family activities, and love exploring attractions and events together. As a fostering family with a young birth child myself, being part of Mockingbird has also been incredibly positive for our own family, allowing my child to build familiar and lasting relationships with children/YP across our constellation.
Our constellation includes children of different ages and journeys, from young children transitioning back to birth family or adoption, to children and young people in long-term care and Staying-Put arrangements.
My hope is that every child, young person, foster carer and their family member feels listened to, supported, included, and like they genuinely belong. Through practical help, emotional support, and genuine connection, I hope to help promote stability, resilience, and sustainability in fostering placements so that children and families can thrive together.
What is the impact of Mockingbird for Fostering Devon?
The aim of the Mockingbird Family Model are to improve placement stability for children who are looked after, prioritise sibling connections, promote active child protection, support permanence and improve the support provided to foster carers. Mockingbird in Devon embodies a nurturing, inclusive constellation of fostering families that reflects the warmth, trust, and connection of an extended family.
The model is evidence-based, has been formally evaluated and shows improved outcomes for children, young people and foster carers. We build stable, sustainable communities where children and young people experience belonging, safety, and the support of multiple trusted adults.as well as:
- Providing stable, immediate support (e.g., emergency care).
- Ensuring carers feel valued and supported.
- Children are able to move comfortably between adults in the hub — similar to extended family.
- Helping normalise childhood experiences and reducing feelings of isolation.
Mockingbird supports whole fostering families, not just care experienced children and young people.
Through Janine’s constellation children are able to build trust and feel safe with multiple adults who are part of their mockingbird network. Creating strong peer relationships with other children and young people has helped remove stigma for children in care. Additionally, birth children also benefit and form their own support networks.
You can find out more about the Mockingbird programme on the Fostering Network website.
If you are an existing Fostering Devon carer and are interested in learning more about future Mockingbird constellations, please contact the team.
You can also learn more about Mockingbird in Devon and the work the team do over on the Fostering Devon website.