Step 1
100
Raw enquiries
The top of the funnel is raw demand. It is not yet useful diary time.
Recruitment system
Foster Carer Recruitment Marketing Built Around Qualified Booked IHVs
Most agencies can buy leads. The difficult part is moving an enquiry through response, screening, booked IHVs, and the first assessment stages without wasting social-work time on the wrong conversations.
We run that front end for UK IFAs: the ads, the first response, the screening calls, the case notes, and the diary handover, so your team picks the process up when there is a real visit to run.
Campaigns, response, screening, and booking run as one recruitment system.
Your social workers inherit qualified booked IHVs, not raw leads and callbacks.
Progress is judged through screening calls, booked visits, assessment packs, and long-run approvals.
Capacity, criteria, and regional fit are built in from the start.
Working benchmark
From first enquiry to a long-run approval path
A managed recruitment system should move cleanly from demand generation into qualification, booked visits, early assessment progress, and the longer-run approval picture.
Step 2
36
Screening calls
This is the point where live qualification starts and weak intent begins to drop away.
Step 3
12
Booked IHVs
Only the applicants who clear the first qualification layer are booked into diaries.
Step 4
6
Assessment packs left
This is the subset serious enough to justify deeper assessment work.
Step 5
2
Long-run approved carers
Over the longer run, about two approvals from every twelve booked IHVs is a useful working benchmark.
This is the reason the service is built around booked IHVs and assessment-ready handovers rather than raw lead counts. The top of the funnel matters only if it produces something your social-work team can genuinely use downstream.
What we own versus what your team owns
The split matters because agencies usually do have the expertise for visits, assessments, and approvals. The pain is everything that happens before that.
We handle the front end
The front end of recruitment is where most agencies lose time and momentum. That is the part we take off the team.
- Paid social campaigns and creative.
- Fast first response while intent is still live.
- Screening calls, qualification, and objection handling.
- Case notes and booked-IHV handover.
Your team takes over where it matters
Once the applicant is qualified and the visit is booked, the work belongs with the people who should own it.
- In-home visits and relationship building.
- Assessment packs and approval process.
- Safeguarding judgement and service fit.
- Longer-run conversion into approved carers.
How the managed recruitment system works
Each stage has to hand cleanly into the next. If the response, screening, and booking steps are disconnected, recruitment collapses back into phone answering and chase work.
Step 1
Define fit and recruitment priorities
We start with your region, approval criteria, internal capacity, and the kinds of fostering applications you genuinely want more of.
Step 2
Build the message around fit, not just clicks
The campaign message is built around real fostering motivations, objections, and misconceptions so the right people self-select earlier.
Step 3
Handle response and qualification centrally
New enquiries are answered fast, triaged through workflows, and moved into live screening calls before your internal team loses time to the front end.
Step 4
Hand over booked IHVs, not unfiltered leads
Qualified applicants are booked into IHVs with case notes so your social workers inherit a prepared next step instead of raw lead admin.
Proof slice
The downstream numbers that matter
These are the numbers that make the end-to-end recruitment case. The service is only worth it if the front-end work produces booked visits, meaningful assessment flow, and the right longer-run approval potential.
12
Booked IHVs from 100 Enquiries
12% of raw enquiries became booked IHVs with notes handed over to the agency.
6
Assessment Packs from 100 Enquiries
50% of booked IHVs progressed into assessment packs in the same benchmark.
2
Approved Carers Benchmark
A working long-run benchmark is roughly 2 approved foster carers from every 12 booked IHVs, subject to region, criteria, and assessment quality.
Frequently asked questions
Because the expensive failure point is almost never just the ad. It is the gap between enquiry and qualified appointment. We own that gap with follow-up, screening, and booked IHV handover.
See the adjacent parts of the system
Map the managed recruitment system around your agency
If you need recruitment to behave like a managed system instead of a phone queue, the fit call is where we map your regions, criteria, capacity, and handover rules.