If you’ve been thinking about fostering, it’s common to feel uncertain about how you will prepare to look after your first child or young person. It might be that you’re certain fostering is something you would like to do but have slight reservations about how you would manage once you’re approved.

At Team Fostering we offer a comprehensive training scheme, and this begins before you become an approved foster carer to ensure that you are fully prepared to take on the role with the skills, knowledge and understanding. This training combines the widely recognised ‘Skills to Foster’ course with our own training and activities that introduce the role and our agency to you.

The Skills to Foster course is described by The Fostering network as ‘an essential resource,’ focusing on the practical, day-to-day skills that all foster carers need. At Team Fostering, our in-house Recruitment Social Workers run the training as a 3.5 day course and this takes place prior to the end of your assessment, before you would be expected to look after your first child or young person. Our foster carers, children and young people help our staff deliver the training, offering first-hand insight into life at Team Fostering to support the learning you’ll take from Skills to Foster.

We seek regular feedback from prospective carers that have attended the training and were delighted to read the following back in April 2019:

‘We enjoyed the course and began to properly see what is needed, and to understand the challenges we might encounter looking after children. It was reassuring to discuss the support we can expect from Team Fostering and to meet other foster carers. A lot of material was covered in a timely manner so that we left each day at the planned time without anything feeling rushed or missed out. Breaks were useful to talk to other participants and meeting real life carers and children was invaluable.’

The training, support and guidance does not stop once you are approved, and our staff team will be alongside you every step of your fostering journey. This support is offered to you 24/7, 365 days a year by your allocated Supervising Social Worker and local staff team.

If you’d like to learn more about fostering with Team Fostering and how we would prepare you for looking after your first child or young person, you can speak to us in the following ways: