Embarking on any new adventure can feel like a huge challenge and takes hard work and dedication - and our foster carers know this better than anyone. If you’re thinking about becoming a foster carer, you might be worried that you don’t have the skills you need, or that you’ll be thrown in at the deep end right away.

Don’t worry though, you don’t need to be an expert right away! Throughout your fostering journey you will receive lots of varied training and development from the fostering team but before you even have a child placed with you, to help put your mind at ease and equip you with the skills you need to become a foster carer, you will be given some training called Skills to Foster™.

The course is run by our experienced social workers who will give you the essential skills to be a brilliant foster carer, and there are also opportunities to speak to our current foster carers who can share their invaluable first-hand experiences with you.

Skills to Foster™

All potential foster carers will go through this training as part of their application process, so it’s a great opportunity to meet other people going through the same stages as you, and who may well stay a part of your fostering community and personal support network.

There are six sessions which run over three days, and aim to prepare you for all the different stages of your fostering journey. The course is run by our experienced social workers who will give you the essential skills to be a brilliant foster carer, and there are also opportunities to speak to our current foster carers who can share their invaluable first-hand experiences with you.

Session 1: What do foster carers do?

Here we aim to help you understand the core responsibilities of a foster carer, the different reasons why children and young people might come into foster care, and how you can effectively meet their needs to give them a safe and supportive home.

Session 2: Identity and life chances

All of the children in our care are different, and some may be dealing with issues of diversity and discrimination. Here we aim to give you a better understanding of how to recognise these issues and how to help foster children be proud of their identity.

Session 3: Working together

All of our foster carers bring different skills and experience to the role, and here we’ll work with you to find the best way of bringing out the skills that you already have. By combining your existing knowledge with our training, our social workers, and our fostering community, we aim to make sure you’re ready to provide foster children the very best outcome.

Session 4: Understanding children and young people

Children and young people who come into our care have often had unpleasant or traumatic past experiences which affect their development and behaviour, so we aim to give you a better understanding of child development, and how early experiences might affect the children you could be looking after.

Session 5: Safer caring

Here we aim to give you a better understanding of different types of abuse that a child in our care might have experienced, how fostering will affect your family, and how to make sure that your home is safe and supportive for both a foster child and your family.

Session 6: Transitions

This final session will discuss the different reasons why foster children move on from a placement, or leave foster care altogether, and how you can positively prepare them for these changes and steps towards independence.

Am I ready?

There will be a whole host of training available to you as a foster carer throughout your fostering journey with us. You can read more about our training provision here. The right time to foster is different for everyone. Just like being a parent, there will be ups and downs, but the rewards are priceless. Now you know a little bit more about the support and training is on hand you may want to have an informal chat with one of our team.

What Do You Learn on Skills to Foster™ Training?