Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care

New workshops for spring 2008

Your development, your future: Understanding and Implementing the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care

Due to popular demand, two further workshops have been organised for spring 2008 to help identify how the standards will affect the delivery of training and professional development to foster carers. Dates and locations of the workshops are:

• Friday 29 February 2008, 9.30-3pm, Peterborough
• Friday 7 March 2008, 9.30-3pm, Euston, London

The workshops will:

• explain the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care
• explore the practicalities of implementing the standards
• share good practice around training and professional development of foster carers
• identify how the new standards will impact on foster carers' professional development.

Who should attend:

• foster carers, supervising social workers, training managers, team managers.

"It is so important to get foster care training right. Having a set of standards that all fostering services are working to will ensure we can offer children the best possible care." (Fostering service manager)

To book a place, download a booking form, save to your desktop and email to tweljie@fostering.net, or print off and post to Taz Weljie, The Fostering Network, 87 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8HA.

More about the Training, Support and Development Standards

The Fostering Network has been working closely with the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) as part of the expert reference group developing the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care. The standards were launched in May 2007. For more information see our bi-monthly e-newsletter, Supporting your Career as a Foster Carer.

The standards are designed to support foster carers from approval through the first two years of fostering, by providing employers with a framework to develop training and professional development plans for foster carers.

There are seven standards:

1. Understand the principles and values essential for fostering children and young people.
2. Understand your role as a foster carer.
3. Understand health and safety requirements.
4. Know how to communicate effectively.
5. Understand the development of children and young people.
6. Safeguard children (keep them safe from harm).
7. Develop yourself.

The Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care set out the professional development that foster care applicants must achieve before they are approved as foster carers and the training that approved carers should receive once they have been approved. The standards support a three-stage training framework for foster care:

• pre-approval level
• post-approval / induction level
• foster carer development level.

All courses from the Fostering Network in England will identify links with the new standards, and map the level of our courses as part of the proposed new Training Framework.

The Fostering Network is developing a new series of post-approval / induction level training courses and publications called Pathways Through Fostering in 2007-08. View our open courses.