Becoming a Foster Carer: Training

Thanks for coming back to the St Christopher's blog. We're excited that you want to find out more about fostering young people. This time we'll be taking a look at the training and support you'll receive that will prepare you for fostering.

St Christopher's provides all our foster carers with great introductory training so that you feel confident that you can provide the best possible care for young people. Your introduction to fostering is made up of four parts:

• The Skills to Foster course
• Induction programme
• The foster carer's manual
• Ongoing training and development

Fostering is a challenging but rewarding career

Skills to Foster is a course that you'll be invited to attend following your successful enquiry. It's based on information from the Fostering Network and is a great way for you to learn exactly what fostering means and how important it is as an option for young people who can't stay with their families.

Skills to Foster covers three days and includes sessions on what foster carers do, understanding children in foster care, and how you can care for children safely.

You'll also find out about social workers and other professionals who'll support you in caring for young people and you'll even meet some of our existing foster carers. We encourage your family and friends to also attend the Skills to Foster course as we know they'll play an important role in your fostering journey.

As a potential foster carer, you'll also be invited to our induction days. These sessions are really useful as you'll learn about St Christopher's and our work with children and young people. This includes fostering, of course, but you'll also find out about our other wide-ranging services for young people and families.

The foster carer's manual is given to all our foster carers and you'll be given a copy once you're approved. It contains all the information and policies, which you can refer to whenever you need them. It's a handy tool that you can also use with your own supervising social worker.

As well as all this fostering preparation, we pride ourselves on our ongoing training and development opportunities for our foster carers. Your supervising social worker will always be on hand for advice and support and you'll have lots of chances to meet other foster carers at St Christopher's as well. There's lots of training sessions covering topics like safeguarding, equality and diversity, first aid, and attachment (an important psychological theory we use a lot).

Fostering is a challenging and rewarding career and we want to help you support young people to recognise and achieve their potential. Everybody has skills and experience that can help them be great foster carers, including you, and we'll help you every step of the way.

If you want to change young people's lives, why not start your fostering journey today. Find out more and enquire about fostering by clicking here.