Training and development
Training and Development for Foster Carers
You do not need a professional childcare qualification to begin exploring fostering. You do need the willingness to learn, reflect and develop the practical skills that children and young people need from the adults caring for them.
Before approval
Preparing to foster
Training begins during assessment and continues throughout a foster carer’s career. It combines essential safeguarding knowledge with practical learning about relationships, behaviour, identity, education, health and working as part of a professional team.
Before approval, applicants normally complete pre-approval preparation training. This gives you an honest view of fostering and helps you think about how it may affect you and everyone in your household.
After approval
Learning during your first year
Once approved, foster carers in England are expected to complete the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care evidence workbook within 12 months. The standards cover the core knowledge, skills and values needed in the role.
Your learning plan should help you connect formal training with real fostering experience. Supervision, reflective discussion, reading, recorded examples and feedback may all contribute to your development and evidence.
Courses that services commonly require include safeguarding, first aid, safer caring, equality and diversity, behaviour support, health and safety, medication and allegations. The precise list and refresher cycle depend on the fostering service’s policies, the carer’s approval terms and the needs of children placed.
Continuing learning
Ongoing development throughout your fostering career
Children’s needs, guidance and good practice change over time. Ongoing learning helps foster carers stay current and deepen their skills. Your development plan may include online learning, live workshops, group discussion, reading, specialist courses and reflective practice.
Additional topics may include supporting education, digital safety, exploitation, substance misuse, life-story work, transitions to adulthood, cultural identity, communication needs and caring for children with particular health or developmental needs.
Training should be relevant, accessible and connected to the fostering you are approved to provide.
Organic FosteringTrauma-informed practice
Therapeutic and trauma-informed learning
A therapeutic approach helps carers look beyond a child’s immediate behaviour and consider what the child may be communicating. Learning may explore attachment, child development, the impact of trauma, emotional regulation, resilience, relationship repair and ways to create a secure base.
The purpose is not to turn foster carers into therapists. It is to help them use everyday interactions, routines and boundaries in a thoughtful way while knowing when specialist advice is needed.
Matched learning
Specialist training for particular placements
Some fostering roles call for learning beyond the core programme. A carer may need tailored preparation before accepting sibling groups, teenagers or children with specific health, communication, behavioural or disability-related needs.
Matching should take account of what you already know, where you need development and whether the right training and support can be in place before the child arrives.
The whole home
Learning as a household
Fostering affects the whole home. Partners, adult household members and children of foster carers may need information or age-appropriate preparation so that expectations, privacy and safer-caring arrangements are understood.
Training pathway
Explore each part of the learning pathway
Each part of foster carer training has its own page, covering the core requirements every carer completes and the needs-led additional learning that builds on them.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Do I need qualifications before I apply to foster?
Usually, no specific professional qualification is required. Your experience, values, ability to care and capacity to learn are explored during assessment. Training and development then prepare you for the role.
Is foster carer training compulsory?
Some preparation and post-approval learning is required. Approved foster carers in England are expected to complete the national Training, Support and Development Standards evidence workbook within 12 months, alongside training required by their fostering service.
Is training online or face to face?
It may include both. Interactive or practice-based sessions may be delivered in person or live online, while some knowledge-based modules may be completed through an online platform.
Do I have to pay for training?
Fostering services normally provide required learning to their approved carers, but arrangements can differ for external qualifications or optional courses.
Can I continue to gain qualifications after approval?
Potentially. Your supervising social worker can help identify development opportunities linked to your role and goals.
Take the next step
Build the confidence to make a difference
Good foster carers never stop learning. If you are open to feedback and ready to develop, our team can talk you through the preparation, assessment and ongoing learning involved.
Take the first step
Your fostering questions can start with one conversation
Tell us what you are thinking and ask what matters to you. A member of our Manchester team will explain the next step without pressure or obligation.