Fostering training
Becoming a foster carer gives you chance to develop your own skills and expertise, alongside helping to change local young people’s lives.
From the start of the application process, we’ll provide you with initial training and support to help you work out whether fostering is right for you and your family.
Once you decide to progress your application to foster, we’ll give you all the training you need to look after a child or children in care.
As you can continue to grow and develop your skills throughout your fostering journey with our mandatory and specialist training, helping you to grow and develop too.
Skills to foster
This is mandatory training for all prospective foster carers and is a course of sessions run by social workers, experienced foster carers and other professionals working within children’s services. Skills to foster training covers issues relating to fostering and the children in our care and fostering expectations.
This training is a 3-day course and it's essential you attend this training to give you an insight into the demands and expectations fostering brings. Attending Skills to Foster, also forms the initial basis of the assessment process and helps you and us consider if fostering is right for you and your family.
Additional training and development
Professional training and development is an essential element of the fostering role and links to your progress through the various levels of foster care. Our Workforce Development Unit (WDU) offers a wide range of training opportunities for foster carers which are available to all.
Your supervising social worker will help you look at what training is right for you and ensure that you are equipped with the skills you need to foster.
A Professional Development Plan (PDP) will be created by your supervising social worker and undertaken annually to help identify training which could be beneficial to you.
All foster carers are expected to complete an induction course to help in the completion of the national required training, support and development standards workbook within 12 months of approval.
In person training is held monthly, led by experienced fostering social workers. Foster carers and a care experienced young person also attend. Sessions cover fostering role, our expectations, what you can expect from us and what our children and young people might have experienced before becoming looked after.
We offer ongoing training and development once approved. We'll work with you to consider training on offer to ensure you are equipped to foster confidently.
We provide induction training and will support you to complete this within 12 months of approval in order to meet the national fostering minimum standards.