Well, what a rollercoaster the past few weeks have been! The first few weeks in this role were ‘death by training’ but June has brought the official launch of the Hive and the first of my families have put in their applications.
As part of the launch the Hive Carer Support Workers were asked to attend a garden party style event to make a promotional film about the Hive Pilot. I was excited by the idea and had a vision of bunting and masses of flowers. I also envisioned a cake. I spent many happy weeks planning in my mind; it would be in the shape of an old-fashioned skep hive, surrounded by bees and flowers. I kept my idea fairly quiet but did offer to make a cake for the proceedings. The day before filming I baked four layers of sponge cake – two chocolate and two orange. I then sandwiched them together with chocolate orange butter cream (my own invention and super scrummy!).
The whole thing was covered with fondant icing and sprayed with my cake decorating spray gun (yes that is a real thing!),
Lastly, I made loads of flowers and buzzy bees out of coloured fondant. I was pleased with the result and even more pleased at how much everyone else liked it on the filming day. The best thing was eating it, of course.
The filming was very special. My colleagues really are such a wonderful bunch of talented people. They were so well chosen for their role. They spoke so eloquently about the Hive and fostering generally. What lucky young people have been cared for by these individuals – they are truly inspirational.
The day passed and we are all now eagerly awaiting the final edit. I do hope the warmth and enthusiasm of the team comes across. We have all got lots of lovely families in our Hives now but hopefully the film may pave the way for an extension of the pilot and more carers and young people will benefit from being in a Hive in the future.