Having held senior management positions in local authority social services departments, I founded SWIIS in 1988 to provide recruitment solutions in social care. Due to the many successful and productive professional relationships with social services departments, SWIIS has since then been able to expand its range of services in both social and health care. As part of this development, in 1999 I established SWIIS Foster Care. My vision for setting up SWIIS Foster Care was, and still remains, to meet the growing need for quality assured placements offering the highest standards of care for children and young people, and to provide real placement choice for local authorities.
My expectation of SWIIS Foster Care is that in addition to meeting or exceeding all the National Standards, our foster homes should be places where I would be happy for my own children to stay.
Experience to date has been very positive with real differences being made to the life chances of children placed with us.
Registration of our first three Foster Care offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle was completed in 2004 and we sought, through a process of continuous improvement, to open further offices in London, Darlington, and Leeds. SWIIS is now a major provider of foster care placements throughout Scotland.
Wherever and to whom we provide a service, our commitment to quality remains at the heart of everything we do. This is born out through our consistently high Ofsted ratings and, most important of all, the feedback we receive from our carers and young people.
‘There’s always someone available 24-7 no matter if it’s a huge problem or whether we just want to talk. Everyone works together.’’
SWIIS Foster Carer Darlington
I believe our commitment to putting children at the centre and working in genuine partnership with our carers and customers are the keys to our success. I hope you find all the information you need on our website; if you have any comments, questions or observations, please do not hesitate to contact us using our on-line form.
Chairman, SWIIS International plc