Director of Kent-based fostering agency wins top industry award
PRESS RELEASE September 2024. Foster families and colleagues at a not-for-profit fostering agency head-quartered in Chatham have a reason to celebrate this summer, after its Managing Director scooped a top business award.
Farayi Chinyemba, of Anchor Foster Care, is a winner at this year’s Managing Director of the Year Awards. Farayi was named as ‘Most Supportive Foster Care Managing Director’ after he was identified by the publication and nominated anonymously .
Organised and hosted by SME News Magazine, the annual awards were set-up to find the very best Managing Directors from across the UK. Now in their third year, the awards recognise individuals who have exampled true excellence in leadership, as well as commitment, and determination from individuals.
Farayi was commended for his unwavering support to staff at Anchor Foster Care – an agency which is on a mission to provide foster care services that lead the way in the sector and promote a more child-centred approach to fostering. Central to achieving this objective is offering greater levels of support to its foster parents.
Commenting Farayi said: “Foster care is a challenging sector, and our teams work tirelessly to recruit, train and support our foster parents every day. By showing patience and positivity, it’s my job to make sure everyone who works at Anchor feels appreciated and supported, so they can thrive. Only then can we support our families and help them deliver exceptional levels of care to children and young people.”
Now, and with demand for social care at an unprecedented level*, Farayi aims to push the company further toward achieving its mission; leading the way in the sector, promoting a more child centred, children before profits approach to fostering.
Farayi added: “Anchor has commitment to make long-lasting, positive changes in the fostering sector, and I’m proud that we’ve been able to do this within an environment where individuals feel supported.
“We have achieved so much in the last 22 years, but there is still much to be done. For Anchor that means increasing our foster family community and continuing to enhance our training and support services. In doing so, it’s our hope that we can continue to raise awareness to the importance of putting care before profit.”
Farayi joined Anchor initially in 2002 as Company Secretary and more than two decades later he took up the role of Managing Director.
During his time, he has been instrumental in realising the company’s ambition, while also building upon the agency’s core founding principles. Within the company’s 2023 Ofsted report, inspectors commented on how the agency’s leadership was a key strength of the agency. It states:
“The leadership team is accessible, visible and a positive role model to all staff. Progress, commitment and inspiration provide direction. Leaders and managers have a clear vision for the agency and support the ethos in their statement of purpose. The overarching family feel is a strength of the agency.”
Other highlights since taking over as MD include, securing significant growth to the number of Anchor foster families and staff; the strengthening of the agency’s learning and development offering, and extending the agency’s operational structure, which now stretches across four hubs in Kent, South London & East Sussex, Bucks & Herts and the Midlands.
Farayi has also more recently overhauled the company’s marketing outputs, (including the launch of a new website this year) and has also been a key driving force in the diversification of service development partnerships with Local Authorities. He remains a Chair for Kent’s Independent Fostering Providers Forum and co-chair of Fostering Network’s National Steering Committee.
For more information about Anchor and / or to register as a foster parent, contact us.
ENDS
Editors’ notes:
*A 2021 analysis by think-tank the Social Market Foundation predicts a shortage of 25,000 carers in England by 2026. Click here for source.
