Introduction

We are Acorn Fostering Services Ltd

Since 2004 Acorn Fostering Services has been a well-established medium sized independent fostering agency based in Leicester.

We are Ofsted approved and registered.

Our aim is to provide Local Authorities throughout Midlands and Northern Counties with safe, nurturing, stable family placements – we achieve this by working in partnership with them, with our carers and other professionals.

We provide high quality foster care placements for children and young people aged 0 to 18 years.

Our carers come from adverse range of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds and we believe this is one of our strengths.

Everyone at Acorn Fostering Services is fully dedicated to supporting ‘looked after children’ and their foster carers.

Our Staff

Shadab Ahmad

Director and ADM

Our Director, Shadab, is a qualified social worker with over 32 years post qualifying experience.

He has an MA in social work and has worked in Local Authorities and the NSPCC as a manager before setting up Acorn Fostering Services in 2004.

His main area of interest is protecting vulnerable children and providing them with new opportunities.

He has experience of working with children in need, looked after children and child protection cases.

Anupam Srivastava

Director

Director Anupam is a qualified social worker with over 34 years of post-qualification experience in social work.

He has an MA in social work and worked with both statutory and voluntary sector.

Prior to setting up Acorn Fostering Services in 2004, he was a neighbourhood Coordinator with Leicester City Council’s Neighbourhood Renewal Programme.

Anupam has vast experience of working with children and families.

Kshama Srivastava

Director

Up until June 2014, Kshama was working as a Human Resources professional in the NHS.

In 2014, Kshama decided to leave her employment with the NHS to play an active role in Acorn Fostering Services.

In her capacity as a Director, Kshama has assumed a lead responsibility for consultation with Staff, Foster carers and other stakeholders, Policy Review, and development along with bringing a vast and valuable contribution in the form of her knowledge and skills and abilities in the field of HR Management.

Lionel Boyce

Registered Manager

Lionel has 43 years’ experience of working in the social care field, ranging from his early work with people with severe mental and physical disabilities and working and managing in older person’s homes, working with children and families in a child care team.

Over the last 25 years, Lionel has worked with children, in a child care operations team in various local authorities.

Lionel moved to fostering in 1993 initially as a social worker and then as a team manager and service manager with local authorities and independent fostering agencies.

Julie Bailey

Deputy Manager

Julie started her social work career with Acorn in 2009, firstly as a Supervising Social Worker, then as Acorn’s Recruitment Officer.

In October 2015 Julie moved to the post of Placement Manager where she has been able to use her knowledge of our fostering households to inform the risk and assessment process when matching placements.

In October 2016 Julie was promoted to Deputy Manager where she has the responsibility of overseeing the Recruitment Team as well as continuing with the Placement Manager.

Our Staff

The rest of Acorn’s team have between them a wealth of experience gained from a variety of different settings all of which contributes to a well-informed, supportive, and stable team.

We are a medium sized team with a friendly, professional approach to our work; made up of people from different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and religions.

We value our staff and are committed to helping them explore their interests through training and personal development.