In 2011 Orchard was approached to devise a campaign to recruit new foster carers in the island. The Guernsey Foster Care team had set a target of 10 new families, but in 2011, were only receiving one or two enquiries per month.
Orchard implemented an eight week campaign in the media, online and at events to raise the profile of the service and convince Guernsey families to sign up to be foster carers.
This campaign received a Silver PRide Award from the CIPR in September 2012.
Background
With a population of approximately 65,000, Guernsey had a total of 69 children being looked after within the care system in late 2011. Of those, 26 children were in foster care and there were 23 active carers.
The remaining children were cared for in arrangements other than foster care. The foster carers were at capacity and there was a desperate need to recruit new carers to provide a loving home for children of all ages but particularly those over the age of ten or sibling groups.
The Guernsey foster care campaign team
Orchard PR was appointed to develop and run the campaign and outsourced the design elements of the brief to creative agency Two Degrees North. They formed a working party with the island’s Family Placement Service.
The campaign
The development of the project was underway in May 2011, and the campaign was officially launched to the media and key target audiences in October 2011 and ran until the end of 2011.
The brand
A capital letter “G” for Guernsey also represents a close-knit and caring family unit.
The poster/banner campaign
A series of A3 and A4 posters and street banners were created focusing on five fictitious children calling people to help “change a life”.
The copy incorporates a message within a message where there is a positive call to action using an emotive statement. One asks to “give (Jessica) care and belief”, another asks readers to help Lucy “make her dreams a reality” while highlighting how desperate these children’s lives have become.
The website
A brand new website was created at www.guernseyfostercare.com. The banners run along the top of each page – rolling out the words and highlighting the call to action in a strong colour. It includes videos from foster carers and the team as well as detailed information about types of foster carer, the assessment, approval, training and support processes.
The exhibition stand
The exhibition stand toured around the island, appearing at key public locations such as the airport terminal, the island’s sports and leisure centre and the library.
The media
Initial results of the campaign
In the six weeks following the launch of the campaign the foster care team received 36 enquiries from members of the public interested in becoming foster carers. This vastly exceeds the average of five to six enquiries a month in 2010 and one to two per month in 2011.
Since then three couples have made applications to become foster carers and there are a number of others attending pre-approval training. The Guernsey Foster Care team is confident they can meet their target of 10 new foster care families in the island as a result of the groundwork achieved through the PR campaign.
Guernsey Foster Care has also been able to appoint seven additional residential carers, exceeding their target of three new permanent staff.
The client
The Guernsey Foster Care campaign was a big success and made a real difference to our efforts to recruit foster carers in the Island. It’s brilliant that it has also won a PRide Award which I hope will help to keep the campaign alive. Despite the excellent results we achieved last year we still need to maintain the awareness of this essential service for some of those more vulnerable children within our local community.
Dr Adrian Datta, Assistant Director of Specialist Services at HSSD.