Croham Services for Children
New ownership
In 2008 Laura Ritchie, Chris Brann and Fergus Smith, who for many years have worked together in local authorities and for CAE Ltd, assumed ownership of Croham Care Services and launched Croham Services for Children (SfC).
Laura, Chris and Fergus have substantial experience of developing and managing local authority fostering, residential and many other services and (through consultancy work) an appreciation of how to work effectively as an independent provider with local authority commissioners.
In 'Year 1' we invested a lot in the SfC premises but put even more time and energy into the carers and staff who, together, make the services we offer as special as they are.
In addition to recruiting more foster carers, our Contact Centre is proving more and more popular.
Our aims
Our aims remain unchanged:
- To be the best in London and southern England, and
- Over time, to be recognised as such
Ofsted (the government organisation that inspects independent fostering agencies like SfC) has already rated our services as 'good'. Next time we are inspected, we are determined to achieve an 'outstanding' evaluation - the best there is!
Find out more about us and why we are confident that we will achieve these aims »
Achievements
We had a successful recruitment drive for foster carers in 2008 when we ran a stall at ASDA in Beddington. We also supported the national Fostering Fortnight in May 2009 when once again ASDA allowed us to use their premises to raise awareness of children's needs and to encourage people to join our team of carers.
In October 2009 we were present at the Croydon Courts' Open Day and on November 17th will be busy seeking carers for local children at Tesco in Lewisham.
Future developments
We plan in early 2010 to develop a DVD and offer a video stream that will illustrate why we think we are able to offer children and their families more than our competitors.
