The Skills To Foster Training

The Skills to Foster Training is the Fostering Networks, pre-approval training course, which is utilised by most Independent Fostering Agencies and Local Authority fostering teams. The course covers many aspects of fostering, including :

• What do foster carers do?
• Identity and life chances
• Working with others
• Understanding children in foster care
• Safer Caring
• Transitions
• My family fosters (workshop for sons and daughters of foster carers to explain what foster care is and what it will mean for them).

The course is considered as part of the foster carer assessment and a report is completed on each foster carer applicant whom attends, contributing to the whole 'Form F Assessment'.

The Independent Fostering Agencies whom I work for, have the course presented over two or three days. Best practice would suggest three days is ideal, but the course can be presented over two days at a push.

The Skills to Foster training is really important, as it provides an overview of what can be expected as a foster carer, but more importantly in my opinion it sets the tone of what the expectations are of foster carers, when caring for very vulnerable children and young people.

As the trainer/assessor , I see part of my role as introducing foster carer applicants to the needs and thoughts of abused and neglected children, hopefully enabling the new applicants, to 'walk in their shoes', just a little bit!

Its crucial that new foster carers have a basic understanding at the outset of their fostering career, of trauma, attachment issues, learnt behaviours, distorted values and loss/bereavement. These underpinning issues will help the foster carer applicants begin to understand the children they care for, if eventually approved as  a foster carer.

Please take a look at my latest Skills to Foster training feedback and maybe consider using my motivational and professional training/assessment services for your agencies new and experienced foster carer applicants.