Making a referral to Be My Parent (newspaper)

You can send your referral by post or by fax but don’t forget that you can also send your referral via this website, by following these guidelines.

Making a referral
Agreement to publicity
Involving children
Use of photographs
Sending in your referral
Deadlines
Publication
Dealing with enquiries
Be My Parent follow-up services
After placement
Payment terms and conditions

Making a referral

To make a referral to the Be My Parent newspaper, you need to send a Referral Form, the child’s profile and photograph, and, if applicable, a purchase or official order form. If for legal or other reasons, you are not able or do not wish to use a photograph, you can still refer the child. Guide to using photos.

You can download a Referral Form here:
BMP referral form 2008-09 print and fill in - PDF (427 KB)
BMP referral form 2008-09 electronic version (2.1 MB)

Find out about referral word counts, costs and deadlines.

Please note that:

• Only referrals that arrive by the deadline will be processed. Late referrals may exceptionally be considered at the discretion of Be My Parent.
• If the referral is not complete, we will fax you once asking for the missing item.
• The signature of an authorised person is essential for a child to be featured.
• If only a photograph is received by the deadline, the referral cannot be processed.
• If the photograph is missing, we will do our utmost to include any photograph or image received after the deadline, but may – reluctantly – publish the child’s profile with “The agency was unable to provide a photograph of the child at this time.”

Completing the referral form

Chasing up documents and information takes up time, so please take extra care to fill in all the relevant sections of the Referral Form, including the number of issues, your fax number and all necessary signatures! Where the information is missing, we will assume one issue, or a standard profile for individual children.

Repeating a feature

• Repeats booked at the same time: Discounts are available if you book a child or sibling group for two or three consecutive issues at the same time. You can make brief amendments or send a new photograph for the second or third insertion in the paper.
  
• Repeats booked at a later date: The Be My Parent Referral Form remains valid for one year. If you wish to re-feature a child during that period, you do not need to send us a new form, but only need to let us know by letter, fax or email:

- the child’s first name and date of birth
- the last issue in which they were featured
- the number of issues you are now requesting (one, two or three)
- whether you wish to re-use the previous profile or make amendments
- whether you are re-using the previous photograph or sending a new one (usually preferable).

Four-month review

As part of Be My Parent’s service to our users and to promote good social work practice, we undertake to review the child’s profile and photograph at least every four months, and will discuss with you any suggestions that could help the child to be linked with a family.

Booking in siblings

• For siblings who are to be featured together in the same profile, use the same Referral Form and list them in age order, starting with the oldest.

• For siblings who are to be featured separately, use a separate form for each child, but please indicate the names of any other siblings featured in the same issue on the form.

Agreement to publicity

It is essential that at least one person or body with parental responsibility should consent to publicity. Good practice requires that birth parent/s, where possible, are consulted and kept informed.

Be My Parent only accepts referrals for children where there is consent to publicity either from the local authority, or the birth parents. Read more about consent to publicity

Temporary change in DfES advice about featuring children needing adoptive placements: The DfES has ‘relaxed’ its advice regarding ‘advertising’ children for adoption. This follows agencies expressing their concern to BAAF about delays for children. BAAF asked the DfES to consider this temporary variation in their advice and this has been agreed. Read more

Involving children

If the children you are featuring in Be My Parent are of sufficient age and understanding, they should sign the Referral Form or a freestanding sheet.

Child's agreement to be featured in BMP (102 KB)

Use of photographs

Photographs are an important way for prospective families to connect with the children featured. To be effective, photographs should be of high quality, so we may ask you for a replacement if we feel that the one sent might not reproduce well.

More information on using photos.

Some older children may be extremely reluctant to have their photograph published in Be My Parent. For other children there may be legal considerations. In these exceptional circumstances, you could replace the child’s photograph with either a drawing, an image of something significant to the child, a poem or quotes (from the child, carer, teacher, etc.). We can also help you find an image and suggest some clipart to replace the photograph. Please discuss this with us. The same fee will apply.

Sending in your referral

Send all the documents in your referral at the same time and as soon as they are ready. This will help us to process them smoothly and if it becomes necessary to contact you, to be able to do this in good time.

If you, or your representative (photographer, foster carer), do need to contact us separately, please remember to use our correct details and include:

• the relevant issue of Be My Parent,
• the child’s first name, and date of birth,
• your name, and agency.

Because of growing concerns about the security of information on the internet, we strongly advise that you do not send referral forms by email. The most secure way of sending your referrals is to use our online system. Agencies need to call us to get set up on the system.

You can still download the template Referral Form:
BMP referral form 2008-09 electronic version (2.1 MB)
BMP referral form 2008-09 print and fill in - PDF (427 KB)
but you will need to print it out and send it to us by post or fax.

You can email revised profiles or JPEGs of photographs to bmp@baaf.org.uk, but please always include:

• child’s first name (no surname) and date of birth, preferably in subject line
• social worker and agency’s names.

Deadlines

Because the newspaper is produced on a monthly cycle, it is important that you remember our referral deadlines. If you would like to receive a monthly reminder via email of the Be My Parent referral deadlines, one week in advance, please contact us.

For security and tracking purposes, it may be advisable to use recorded or – especially near the deadline – special delivery. On the day of the deadline, the referral should arrive:

• by post: by the day’s ordinary post or by special delivery
• by fax: by midnight
• in person: by 5pm at the Be My Parent office.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

• Repeat profiles with no changes: It may be possible to include these at proof stage, and we will let you know if this has happened.

• Other profiles: These are transferred automatically to the next issue, unless you advise us otherwise. Late referrals may exceptionally be accepted in that month’s issue, but this will be at the discretion of Be My Parent.

Publication

Preparing for publication

All profiles are checked and edited by experienced staff at Be My Parent, in consultation with a child placement consultant, with social work background, to give children the best opportunity to find a family.

The edited profile is then faxed to you for approval by a set deadline. Any changes you wish to make by this deadline will be incorporated. Otherwise, the faxed profile will be published.

How to make corrections

Please fax back the edited profile with handwritten corrections, as this is easier for us than receiving a retyped profile. Any changes will need to fit in with the word limit and Be My Parent house style.

Making payment

Please do not send a cheque or BACS remittance with your referral, but pay when you receive our invoice, which will be sent to you after publication.

Mailing services

Be My Parent is sent either by ourselves or by a mailing house to agencies first (48-hour delivery) and then to individual subscribers (second class).

Dealing with enquiries

What happens at the Be My Parent office

• After the profile has been published, we take telephone enquiries from prospective families and child placement agencies, and note their full details.
• We then give out the name of the child’s social worker, agency, telephone number and, if you agree, your email address.
  When prospective families contact you
• Be aware that you will start receiving enquiries just before the dates that families will receive the paper.
• Make sure that you are available to take calls or emails, or have made suitable arrangements. If you are going to be unavailable, please let us have, in good time, an alternative contact to give out to enquirers.
• Please inform us of any changes in your details.
• Inform enquirers as soon as possible – by phone, letter or email – why they have not been considered suitable for a particular child.
• Please try to respond to enquirers within seven working days.

Support with managing enquiries

To help you manage enquiries for children you have featured, especially when you are receiving a large number or circumstances change, you can ask us to screen enquiries. To avoid being contacted unnecessarily, we offer you two options:

• On reserve: We can place the enquirer’s details on a reserve list and pass them on to you, on request.
• Withdrawn: We can tell enquirers that the child is no longer available, but do not keep their details.

Please ask us to cancel any repeat profiles in future editions, so as to receive a refund. Cancellation fees

Be My Parent follow-up services

• We will send you monthly information about enquiries received for each child featured.
• We also provide general, non-identifying statistical information about children and families. To this end, we will contact you to discuss the children’s placement progress, within three months of publication.

After placement

Please inform us within 28 days if children have been linked with a family. Remember that a placement fee is due for children placed through our services.

Payment terms and conditions

Deadlines and delivery dates

Please see our section on Costs and deadlines for information on deadlines and delivery dates.

Payment conditions

For all referral and placement fees:

• rates do not include VAT, which will be added
• do not send a cheque or BACS remittance until you are sent an invoice, after your first booking,
• if applicable, send a purchase or official order form at the same time as the Referral Form, and remember to include the child’s first name on the form; if this is not done, regrettably, we will have to issue invoices without the order number.

Referral fees

Please note that referral fees apply to one child or to a sibling group featured together in the same profile (whatever the number of children), and that children can be booked for one, two or three consecutive issues at the same time.

Placement fees

A placement fee is due for children placed through Be My Parent. By completing the Referral Form, the referring agency agrees to inform Be My Parent staff – within 28 working days – that a featured child has been linked at panel (useful for statistical purposes). This fee is applied only in cases where a placement results. This enables us to maintain referral fees at more affordable levels.

Discounts

The following discounts are available:

• Repeat bookings: Significant discounts are available if you book space in two or three consecutive issues at the same time.
• Reduced fees when referring to both the newspaper and website: If you are already referring a child or children to the Be My Parent newspaper, it only costs an additional £85 for the profile to also appear on the website.

Cancellations

Please inform us if you wish to cancel a referral and repeats in future editions. It’s best to inform us as soon as possible, as less work will have been done to process the referral. If you do this early enough, there will be no cancellation fee, or only a nominal charge.

Last updated: 04 March 08

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