Our Therapeutic Approach
- What foster care training is required, and why is it important?
- What are the benefits of training courses for a prospective foster parent and an experienced foster carer?
- Take a look at our therapeutic approach to foster parent training…
Debunking The Myth – What Foster Care Training Is Actually Required And Why Is It Important?
There is a wide range of articles online discussing the ‘exact’ specific training and online training, elearning courses, mandatory courses and endless professional qualifications you need to become a foster parent. Today we’re here to debunk this myth! You don’t need a raft of professional qualifications to become a foster carer, but in year one, you will need to complete a mandatory training course – the TSD (Training, Support and Development) workbook. Some further vetting during the assessment process is also vital to ensure child safety, and beneficial for prospective foster parents to ensure they get the best out of it. There are usually further carer-led day courses and in-person training provided by fostering agencies to equip you with all the skills and training support you need to provide a happy, safe and comfortable home for children and young people.
What Are The Benefits Of Training Courses For Prospective Foster Carers and An Experience Foster Parent?
Foster care training has many benefits, namely the development and improvement of skills that can help enhance your approach to fostering. It teaches you the best methods to deal with challenging behaviour, stressful situations, and to help you better physically and emotionally support the child or young person in your care. The benefits of in-person training, when compared to online training, are the ability to meet other foster parents in your community, which helps you become part of the fostering network. This network that you gain access to includes social workers, agencies and experienced foster carers who are available to offer support and help you to better understand your fostering role. A wide range of additional courses are always available too, after mandatory training, which are particularly helpful for experienced foster carers. We’d recommend that a record of your training and achievements is completed to ensure your carry on developing and show your ongoing achievements.
Take A Look At Our Therapeutic Approach To Foster Parent Training…
At Changing Futures, we’d consider our approach to training a therapeutic one. Our training programme is a reflective fostering programme that focuses on understanding the relationships and emotional support that make up a large part of fostering. It also covers the mandatory training elements, such as fire safety, child development and first aid. It consists of 10 training sessions that are at convenient times to take into account everyone’s availability and commitments. A mixture of online training and in-person training, you can learn from home flexibly and benefit from in-person support.
Our Therapeutic Approach Focuses On..
Attachment Theory: This part of our training programme focuses on attachment experiences for both children and young people, as well as for foster carers.
Systemic Practice: This pays attention to the impact of fostering on all of the relationships involved in a foster home and foster family
Mentalisation: This therapeutic approach to foster care training focuses on imagining, perceiving and interpreting human behaviour, which can improve a foster parent’s ability to think and act in a more considerate way, and react more effectively to stressful, high-pressure situations.
Developmental Training: This looks at the impact of abuse and trauma on a child or young person’s development.
Relationship Focused Expertise: This ensures all relationships in the fostering household are considered.
Ongoing Learning Opportunities: We like to consider training and learning as an ongoing process that doesn’t stop after mandatory training.
Training That Builds Understanding: This is important to ensure an attuned, sensitive and considerate approach to fostering, and to help develop a sense of belonging and safety for foster children.
What do our foster parents say about our therapeutic approach to training?… “I was nervous because I have never done training like this before, but I get so much from it and love spending time with other foster carers.”
At Changing Futures Fostering, we’re all about providing our foster parents with the support they need to really make a difference in a vulnerable child’s life. If you need any more information on the training programmes that we offer, our therapeutic approach to foster parent training or about the fostering process in general, please click here to contact us. Or, please feel free to give us a call on 01429 363 127 or email us at admin@changingfuturesne.co.uk to speak to our brilliant fostering team!