About North West

SWIIS Foster Care North West has a central base in Manchester and initially provided placements mostly within the Greater Manchester area. More recently, we have widened our area to include an office in the centre of Leeds. Working from these two bases allows us to provide a service to local authorities across the North West region.

The team consists of social workers, teachers, health advisors and support workers, backed up by an efficient and welcoming admin team. Our foster carers come from all walks of life but share an energy and enthusiasm that is evident at their well-attended regular support group meetings. They provide placements for children and young people of all ages and both foster carers and team members take pride in achieving positive outcomes for the children in placement.

The Regional Director, Cynara Ogden-Smith, has been in post since the initial development of SWIIS Foster Care in 1999 and, prior to that, had many years experience of working in the areas of fostering and adoption. The rest of the team are experienced professionals with a wide variety of specialist skills and interests ranging from attachment theory to literacy.