BACK TO BLOGYou’ve just finished the school run, and after a sullen car journey with some guarded replies, you quickly discover that your foster child is having another tough day.
Maybe it’s an upset over something small, or a sudden withdrawal that leaves you wondering what’s really going on beneath the surface. You try to stay supportive and patient, but sometimes, even the most experienced foster carers find themselves unsure of what to do.
This is a common scenario for foster carers; one that they must be prepared to handle in advance.
Because no matter how much care, time, and energy foster carers put in, fostering is always evolving. Children’s needs and behaviours change, and each new child or young person involves a new set of experiences and challenges.
That’s why your fostering service must integrate ongoing foster care training into its processes.
In this blog, we explore why continuous learning and support make all the difference, not just in meeting your obligations to foster carers, but in helping every child in your care feel safe and understood.
Meeting the evolving needs of cared for children
Every child who comes into care brings their own story, often involving experiences of trauma and neglect. These early experiences can have a significant impact on a child’s behaviour, development and how they form attachments.
Ongoing training helps foster carers better understand and respond to these needs. It helps you to encourage the creation of trusting relationships with the children in your care by deepening your understanding of:
- Trauma-informed care and how early experiences shape behaviour and developmental needs
- Emotional and mental health – recognising when something isn’t quite right
- Attachment styles and how to support children in forming healthy bonds
- Identity and how to support children in understanding and valuing who they are
The more your foster carers learn, the more equipped they are to create an environment where children can heal.
Keeping up with legislation and best practice
Fostering isn’t just a personal role; it’s also a professional one. That means that fostering services have a responsibility to ensure that foster carers meet standards, especially as guidance is updated regularly, making it essential to stay informed.
Ongoing training helps foster carers:
- Stay fully compliant with current fostering regulations and standards
- Understand their safeguarding responsibilities
- Keep up to date with policy changes that affect cared for children
- Maintain high standards of care in line with professional expectations
Boosting confidence in your role
Let’s be honest: fostering can be tough. It can be immensely rewarding, but also lead to emotional ups and downs, difficult conversations, and sometimes crisis situations that no one can really prepare for on their own.
Training can be a real safety net in these moments. It offers practical strategies for managing stressful situations with clarity, building emotional resilience, and strengthening communication skills.
Foster carers also gain the necessary tools for navigating conflict, handling transitions, and responding confidently in times of crisis.
For those looking to specialise further, training also opens doors to advanced roles and qualifications, all while supporting ongoing development.
How FosterTalk supports carers with training
At Fostertalk, we understand that everyone’s fostering journey is unique. That’s why we aim to be as flexible as possible, supporting services in running training at times that are more compatible with caring for children.
Here’s how we support fostering services:
Expert-led webinars
Our live sessions are run by experienced foster carers, social workers, child psychologists, safeguarding specialists and more. Foster carers can join live to ask questions or catch up later at their convenience.
Contribute towards approval requirements
Training contributed to maintaining the requirements of your local authority or IFA in the area where you live.
Wide range of topics
Whether your foster carers want to explore trauma-informed care, understand neurodiversity, or build their skills in managing difficult behaviour, we’ve got the right training for you.
Preparing for fostering – Journey 2 Foster
Choosing to become a foster or kinship carer is a life-changing decision and requires a high level of support from day one.
Journey 2 Foster is a pre-approval training programme that can be delivered in person or virtually. The three-day, fully interactive course takes a trauma-informed and child-centric approach, helping carers gain not just practical knowledge but an emotional insight into fostering.
Across six modules, participants will discover:
- What the foster and kinship carer role really involves and how it fits within the wider care system
- Key principles like attachment theory and secure base caregiving
- How to support a child or young person as they transition into care
- The support network around you and how to use it
- How to lay the foundations of safer caring and understand the role of allegations
- The importance of identity and how to help a child feel safe, seen and valued
Our Journey 2 Foster training programme provides a safe and encouraging space to learn for new foster carers and experienced ones alike, so they can feel better prepared to take on the role.
Here for you, so you can be there for them
Behind every confident carer, there needs to be a foundation of support and knowledge.
Ongoing training is the most effective way to stay connected to best practice and to keep offering the very best care.
If you’re looking to arrange training for your foster carers, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team today. We’re on hand to answer any questions you may have, and to help you plan and organise when’s best to run your programme.
