Foster carer training framework needed to ensure consistency across UK, charity advises
A UK-wide framework of training that enables foster carers to develop their skills throughout their careers is needed to ensure they are equipped to meet the needs of fostered children, the Fostering Network is advising today.
Learning as they go, a new report based on a survey of almost 300 foster carers, found that fostering services are currently offering their foster carers a wide range of training opportunities. The foster carers who responded to the survey had attended more than 2,000 training courses between them over the past two years, covering 200 topics and themes.
Virtually all respondees showed an enthusiasm for training, with 91 per cent agreeing that training helped to develop their skills, and almost half (45 per cent) reported having achieved or working towards an NVQ/SVQ level 3 since their approval as foster carers.
However, the report also has messages for fostering services. Four out of 10 (39 per cent) said that the training available to them was not relevant to their experience, with a similar proportion (40 per cent) reporting that the training offered by their fostering services felt like a ‘tick-box’ activity.
Moreover, many foster carers were not being offered training to help them develop their skills to meet the needs of individual children. Almost one-third (30 per cent) of respondees had looked after a child in the last two years for whose needs they did not have the relevant skills and experience. Of these, just 43 per cent had discussed training opportunities to help them develop the necessary skills with their supervising social worker.
Foster carers also raised concerns about the timing and location of training on offer to them – of those who turned down an opportunity to attend training, 30 per cent had been unable to secure child care, 46 per cent reported that the training was planned at an inconvenient time and 18 per cent said that the location had been hard to reach.
The report’s findings add weight to the Fostering Network’s Together for Change campaign, which is calling on the UK’s governments to implement a learning and development framework for foster carers. This would help to ensure all foster carers have access to standardised training across the UK, and would encourage the development of specialist and further accredited training. It would also support foster carers in developing their skills and expertise to assist career progression; the Fostering Network recommends that all career foster carers should achieve a level 3 qualification within two years of approval.
Report author Helen Clarke said: “Being a foster carer in the 21st century requires skill, knowledge and expertise. Training is a vital way of providing foster carers with the opportunity to learn the skills required to foster and to understand the needs of the children in their care.
“Our survey shows that foster carers are enthusiastic about training and feel it improves their skills. It also shows that a clear framework of post-induction training focusing on core skills and leading to a level 3 qualification is urgently required to standardise access to and levels of foster carer training across the UK.”
Notes to editors
- For more information contact the Fostering Network on 020 7620 6425 or email media@fostering.net
- Learning as they go: accessing ongoing learning and development opportunities is available for download at www.fostering.net/resources/reports/learning-they-go
- The report was based on an online survey carried out by the Fostering Network among foster carers who had been approved for two years or more, with 295 responses from across the UK.
- Together for Change is the Fostering Network’s new campaign to make foster care work for every fostered child and every foster family.
- Career foster carers are those who are working as foster carers on a full-time basis and who are not approved solely to foster a named child.
- There are more than 72.500 children and young people in care on any given day in the UK – over two-thirds live with foster carers. There are 43,000 foster families in the UK, with an estimated 10,000 more needed.
- The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading charity for all those involved in fostering, and aims to make life better for fostered children and the families that care for them. It has offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London.
