Behind the scenes at Be My Parent…

Those of you who refer children to Be My Parent might wonder what happens to the referral after you send it to us. We are often asked why it can take up six weeks from the time of the referral deadline to the newspaper being published. Read on for an insight on what goes on behind the scenes at Be My Parent!

The first stage is checking and “booking in” your referral. We might need to enter the child details in our database if it’s a new referral and you haven’t used our online system. We check that you have the right consent to feature the child and that you have given us all the information we need. We might need to scan photographs you have sent us, use special software to remove school logos or other identifying information, or crop the image so we have a closer shot of the child. If the photo isn’t of sufficient quality, we will ask you for a new or better one. We then need to enter all the details of your referral in our system: is it newspaper only, or web, or both? Is it a standard profile, enhanced, half or full page? One, two or three months? Which areas of the website have you chosen?

The next step is for the editorial team to look at the profile you have sent. They check it for typographical errors, spelling and punctuation, and that it adheres to our house style. We also make sure it is of the right length, and shorten it if necessary – that takes some skill, so that the profile captures the essence of the child, while retaining important information. If the child is disabled or has health issues, it’s important that the profile doesn’t become a list of those, but still brings the child’s personality to life: what do they like playing with; what is their favourite food? We also make sure that information you have given in the referral form is included in the profile.

Our Child Placement Consultants, who have a social work background, will then review the profile to make sure that the profile is an accurate reflection of the child, and that chances of attracting suitable enquiries are maximised. They might call you to discuss the profile with you if needed.

A draft profile is sent to you, with any queries still outstanding. We will also point out to you any changes or edit we have made. You have the opportunity of providing more information, or to make changes to the text – bearing in mind the maximum word counts, which we will point out to you. Sometimes several versions of the profiles go back and forth until the time that it is finalised!

Meanwhile, the page layout for the issue needs to be planned carefully. Profiles are grouped by region of the agency featuring them. We also need to make sure that siblings are shown on the same page, and that there are children of different ages, gender, etc on each page.

Once all profiles have been worked on for an issue of Be My Parent, we send all the profiles and photographs to our typesetter, who will prepare the proofs of that issue, and send them back to us. Not only will we proofread the whole issue, but we will also make extensive checks: correct date of birth, spelling of name, photograph, profile text and code. We double check that the photograph will reproduce as well as it can once printed. If the child is also featured on the website, possibly with a video clip, we add a mouse (and a camera symbol) to flag this up for enquirers. We also check that all children referred in the issue are there!

At that same time, the profiles of children also featured on our website are published – including longer profiles, additional photos and sometimes video clips – so families and agencies can begin to make enquiries, even before the newspaper has been distributed.

We also prepare the list of the children with their reference code, the page on which they are featured in that issue, and details of their social workers, so we have this information to hand when we receive telephone enquiries.

During the time that we work on the proofs, some children may be withdrawn, so proofs go back and forth until the final time when the issue needs to be “cleared for press”, and printed the next day. The process itself takes a couple of days. Copies of the printed newspaper are transported down to our office from Yorkshire, ready to be mailed out to around 900 families and approximately 2,600 agencies, who can then begin to make enquiries about the children featured!

Behind the scenes at Be My Parent…

Find out more about the Be My Parent team!