Learning and Development
Standards and Regulations
Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care
- Standard 7 - Develop yourself.
Related guidance
Learning and development is an important part of fostering. You are expected to take part in the learning and development offered by the local authority and the Safeguarding Children Partnership.
Your role is valued by RMBC; there is a strong commitment to ensure that you have access to the right support and development opportunities.
These opportunities will help you to meet the often complex needs of the children/ young people for whom you care for and allow you to develop skills and knowledge to keep your family and any children you foster safe and protected.
Your learning and development is provided to:
- Improve knowledge, develop and refine skills;
- Establish a framework of values, which promotes equality of opportunity;
- Enable you to reflect and explore the effects of discrimination in all parts of the community, recognising that you care for children in the context of a wider society, and that for many children, discrimination is a fact of everyday life;
- Ensure that you are competent and confident in safer caring and in protecting children from harm;
- Encourage you to take responsibility for your own development through the creation of individual learning and development profiles (Personal Development Plans).
Learning and development within Rotherham Fostering Service is on 3 tiers:
- Pre-Approval (Skills to Foster Course);
- Induction which comprises of first year mandatory training and completion of Training, Support and Development standards;
- Continual Personal Development.
Before being approved, you are required to complete the "Skills to Foster Pre-Approval" course.
The course provides an accurate picture of the role, tasks and duties of a foster carer and an initial understanding of the issues of fostering.
During the first year following approval, there are 6 mandatory courses that must be undertaken by all foster carers:
- First Aid Training (must also be redone every 3 years thereafter);
- Introduction to Safeguarding Children and Young People;
- Equality and Diversity;
- Record Keeping;
- Safer Caring;
- Managing and De-escalating Behaviour;
- Attachment and Early Developmental Trauma;
- Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE);
- Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE).
The Training, Support and Development Standards (TSDS) workbook must also be completed within the first year. If for any reason you have not are unable to complete your TSDS workbook within the first year, an extension must be requested from a fostering team manager by your supervising social worker.
Carers within the Families Together scheme may also need to undertake other task specific training relevant to children and young people with disabilities.
The Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care were established to improve the lives of children and young people, their families and carers by ensuring that all people working with them have the best possible learning and development, qualifications, support and advice.
The Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care have been designed to support you through the initial stages of fostering. This is nationwide and not just applied to Rotherham carers.
Within the first 12 months after approval (or 18 months for - Connected Persons - Family and Friends foster carers), you are required to evidence competence against the Standards via the completion of worksheets and a portfolio of evidence. Support is available to complete the standards from your supervising social worker and the fostering training officer.
Families and Friends (Connected Carers) and Families Together Carers each have a slightly modified version of the standards, which reflects the specific tasks they complete within the role and the differing needs of the young people in their care.
Two foster carers in the same house can use the same workbook. However both carers need to demonstrate they have contributed and have each signed each sheet.
Your learning and development needs are constantly monitored by your supervising social worker and evaluated through your annual review.
It is important to have an on-going commitment to learning and development throughout your fostering career.
The First Aid course requires refresher sessions every 3 years and you must complete at least one course with an element of safeguarding learning every year. This is to ensure that you are informed of new developments and legislation within these areas.
Other learning opportunities are task-related and reflect the needs of the children and young people in foster care.
Your supervising social worker will help you identify your learning and development needs and record these on either the Initial Personal Development Plan (PDP) or Review Personal Development Plan.
The PDP is the tool:
- To record the learning and development activities that have been undertaken by the carer;
- To evaluate the progress achieved and summarise your development over the last 12 months;
- To identify any barriers to learning and development;
- To enable the assessment as to where you need to further develop or update knowledge and skills over the next 12 months.
The PDP is reviewed annually at your review.
If you are not satisfied with the PDP, you can request a meeting to discuss it, in the first instance, with your supervising social worker. If this is still not resolved you should request a meeting with the team manager of the fostering service.
In addition, the PDP is also a required element of evidence within section 7 of the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care standards.
A copy of the PDP is provided to the fostering training Coordinator to enable any barriers to learning and development to be overcome and facilitate attendance and participation in learning and development.
All foster carers are required to complete 3 learning and Development activities, in a 12 month period in line with annual reviews, a least one of which is a face to face training course.
Primary carers must complete a minimum of 3 face to face training opportunities per year.
Secondary carers must complete a minimum of 1 face to face training opportunity and 2 online training opportunities per year.
We encourage all carers to keep their own CPD portfolio either electronically or in paper form.
Why keep a portfolio?
- To provide a record of learning;
- To meet the requirements of continual professional development;
- For personal satisfaction of carers;
- To build carer confidence;
- For career development;
- As evidence for a vocational qualification such as NVQ;
- As the basis for the carer's CV;
- As evidence for a job interview;
- As a tool to help the carers learning and development;
- As a portable record of learning.
The portfolio is your property.
The fostering service provides further mandatory learning and development courses to be completed by all carers to enable them:
- To keep children and young people safe;
- To meet their individual development needs;
- To progress through the skills levels.
If need and demand dictates, the Fostering Learning and Development Coordinator can arrange bespoke learning and development courses.
It is a requirement that you access a minimum of 3 development activities annually. It is important to recognise that development / learning activities may not necessarily constitute “classroom “based training course. You may have researched a particular topic, read literature or attended a support group which featured a guest speaker which could be considered a learning activity. Speak to your Supervising Social Worker who can help identify which of these constitute a development activity and record what you have learnt and how this will shape your practice on a reflective log (copies can be found in the back of the CPD portfolio).
It is important that you are able to reflect on any learning activity and demonstrate how this in turn relates to your care and practice. The reflective learning log is provided to enable you to discuss and record learning and development with your Supervising Social Worker. This complements the PDP.
Reflective learning logs are usually considered as enhanced learning and should not be included in the 3 per year training requirements. However, if these are detailed, backed up with research and evidence as well as clearly linked to the needs of children in placement these may be considered as learning activity if agreed by team manager.
You can progress through the Skills Levels 1 to 4 by developing a portfolio of evidence of skills, abilities and knowledge you have in meeting the required criteria. One element of the criteria is that you must have completed specified learning and development activities. The criteria for each level can be found detailed in the Skills level progression document in the resources section of this handbook.
For further information, please see Money Matters and Insurance Procedure.
When taking part in learning and development, you are encouraged to discuss your experiences of being a foster carer or the needs of children in your care.
All participants should respect the confidentiality of this information outside of the session.
If completing correspondence courses or evidence-based development (such as NVQ or induction standards) which requires real-life examples to be included, it is imperative that the child or young person cannot be identified.
If you are unsure of any issues surrounding confidentiality or if they require further information, support can be obtained from your Supervising Social Worker.
The Fostering Service recognises that attending face-to-face learning and development can be difficult with the other commitments you have; therefore, where possible, flexible learning and development opportunities are provided. Training sessions are held during the day with some, evenings in convenient places and reasonable expenses paid to enable you to attend.
- Direct, face-to-face learning and development is held as the most appropriate and effective learning method, as the benefit of both peer support and peer experience enriches the learning process;
- Online E-learning allows you to undertake learning and development courses within your own home. Usually, these courses allow learning and development to be delivered over a period of time.
The course content will be displayed on screen in manageable-sized chapters and may contain activities, questions and case studies for you to explore and reflect upon.
Support groups are an invaluable source of support and advice for you.
Peer Mentoring/Buddying enables experienced foster carers to provide guidance and support to those who are newly approved.
"The Fostering Service must ensure that foster carers have the support services and development opportunities they need in order to provide their foster child with the best possible care".
"Foster carers must take part in learning and development, use skills and approaches that make a positive impact and enable the child to reach his or her potential."
If you move to another fostering service your training portfolio will be transferred if requested.
Last Updated: August 23, 2024
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