Foster Care Agency – How we support you

Running any business is hard enough isn’t it ? But when its a foster care agency things get even tougher.

There’s the financial records to maintain, the carers to pay, the overriding welfare of the children to take care of, the new carers Form F’s, the supervising social workers and carers to train, panel to arrange and Ofsted to keep happy. And that’s before you even start to work out the often mysterious ways of the Local Authority !

So wouldn’t it be a good idea to get a little help with some of this ?

As your accountant, we don’t just want to help you tinker around the edges of this (although we will if that’s all you want) with a bit of bookkeeping or running payroll but would rather run your complete finance function.

So how does this work for a foster care agency ?

Our Virtual Finance Office Service was designed for foster carer agency owners who want to spend less time gathering together paperwork and more time on growing their business.

With this in mind the service includes:

• Your financial records and accounts maintained in real time
• Weekly reports keeping you informed of what you are owed by the LA
• Staff Payroll processed for you
• Foster Carer payments processed for you
• Personalised credit control – get cash in your bank
• Preparation of budgets and cashflow forecasts
• Monitoring of budget spends
• Monthly or Quarterly Management Accounts
• Monthly or Quarterly meetings to dive into the numbers
• Helping you meet and financial requirements during an OFSTED visit
• Two page business plan
• Annual goal setting meeting
• Retirement / exit planning

Don’t worry if your bookkeeping has fallen behind. We provide a catch up service as part of our Virtual Finance Office service, so we’ll have you back on track in no time.

But as you can see it goes further than bookkeeping and the usual payroll.

We know that making sure your carer payments are accurate and paid on time is essential. We will work with you to ensure your carers receive their payments for all young people in their care, including variable skills payments and payments towards religious or other festivals.

And once the financials are taken care of we’ll also advise you on the strategic side, including the importance of business development as a vital part of your growth plan. Business development is what helps your business move from slow, organic growth to fast-paced, hypergrowth. And it’s only by putting the right drive and expertise behind your fostering business that you can turn your strategic ideas into real success stories.

So, how can we help you achieve this?

We can talk to you about your strategic goals

The starting point for any kind of growth is to pin down your goals and aims as an agency and as individuals. When you know what you want to achieve over the coming months and years, it’s far easier to define a strategy for success. And that’s easier to do that when you talk to an objective adviser, like us.

We can sit in on your board meetings, talk to your executive team, even have a chat with your panel and get a real handle on what makes the agency tick. And, armed with this knowledge, we’ll work with you to drive the direction of your foster care agency and find the best opportunities for you to focus on.

We can help you create a clear growth strategy and plan

Having a defined set of goals is a good starting point. But to put this all into action in a productive way, you’re going to need a comprehensive plan.

Our years of experience advising directors and business owners and their teams really comes into play here. We know the best routes to take, the budgets that will be needed and the right tactics for expansion. By putting these strategies into a clear plan, and linking this to agreed timescales, you have a route map to follow and action. A plan that we will help you follow and keep you focussed and accountable.

We will help you track and measure the growth of your foster care agency

Meeting your targets takes time – and a whole lot of dedication. Measuring your growth over time, helps you stay on track.

We’ll help you create the reporting and metrics you need, so you have clear data to track your progress. We will provide you with timely monthly or quarterly management accounts that are bespoke for your business and future focussed.

We will hold monthly or quarterly meetings with you to keep things on track

As busy business owners, having the formal structure in place for monthly finance meetings can make a huge difference to profitability.

Whether you are working independently or part of a management team, taking the time to review and interrogate the numbers, understand how they all interact, review and set actions will really help as you strive for improved agency profitability.

We will agree a meeting agenda that is bespoke to your requirements and make sure we focus on the important financial elements of your business growth strategy.

One size does not fit all 

We appreciate that when it comes to business and in particular a foster care agency one size does not fit all so neither does our Virtual Finance Office service. 

Typically a Finance Director would command a salary of around £75,000pa and a small finance team would come in at around £35,000pa.

We will prepare a service that is bespoke to your agency with as much or as little that you need, require or your budget will currently support and all at a cost that will come in way below the figures above.

Ready to start chatting ?

Click HERE let’s get going.