Starting Your Training
Following the initial visit and the decision to move forward with your application to foster, you would be invited to attend our Skills to Foster training which is spread across three days here at the agency.
We know that you are not going to learn everything in three days but it will give you some insight into the skills you need to do the job.
You will learn about identity, working with others, communication, and being part of a professional team. It’s a great chance for you to meet the agency staff you will be working with and to show you whom to contact whenever you need help or guidance.
One of the most important parts of your early training is learning to care for children, making them feel loved and keeping them safe.
With our founder being a foster carer and a significant amount of our staff having foster care experience, we know how important it is to equip our carers with the support and skills they need to do their jobs.
GET IN TOUCHYour First Year of Training
Being a foster carer is an extremely important role that requires a huge commitment, so we make sure the first year of training and support gives you the best start possible.
The first year of training you will be asked to complete the Training, Support and Development Standards (TSDS) workbook, which requires you to provide evidence of the skills you already have and identify your future learning needs.
We provide support to help you complete the workbook. This includes assigning you a social work team member to guide you alongside an experienced foster carer to act as your mentor.
In your first year, you also complete training aroudn safeguarding, attachment and a first aid course.
GET IN TOUCHOngoing Training After Your Frist Year
We are learning all the time, and new problems are constantly presenting themselves.
The training we provide is a reflection of what you need as a carer, so as different or unique challenges start to arise, we will provide training to help you understand the best practice to tackle these new challenges.
Using a flexible and dynamic approach to training and support helps us equip you with the relevant skills you need to offer a high level of care to the children in your home. As you progress, so does your personal training profile, with opportunities to gain qualifications that are transferrable beyond fostering.
Every foster carer approved by the agency has a personal development plan which gives them access to a wide variety of mandatory training as well as a variety of optional training courses, many of which are arranged in response to carers and agency needs.
All our in-person training is within school hours, and we will provide care for younger ones when needed so you can attend.
If you ever feel like you need additional training, you can always request it from your social worker and we will put it in place when we can. With our wide range of outside training agencies and online training tools, we are able to offer various approaches to suit all style of learning.
GET IN TOUCHTherapeutic Foster Carer Training
For our therapeutic carers, we have a corporate membership at the Centre of Excellence in Child Trauma, giving our staff and foster families access to therapeutic parenting webinars, workshops and programmes delivered by leading experts in therapeutic parenting courses.
Therapeutic parenting training comes in multiple forms, including targeted 10-minute strategies as well as longer therapeutic parenting courses to give families practical solutions to the challenges they face.
Children who have experienced emotional, psychological, or really any type of abuse, require more specialised care in order to heal, which is why we have put in the extra effort to ensure our therapeutic carers feel are equipped to meet the child’s needs.
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