WIREDGOV

Fostering service providers can now access clearer guidance and new training resources to enhance the support they provide foster carers and improve standards of care for vulnerable children and young people.

Established guidance for supervising social workers implementing the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care has now been replaced with a new training suite and support materials.

This will reduce bureaucracy, provide greater consistency across services and improve support for foster carers and their supervisors. The improved guidance has been developed by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and the Fostering Network.

In response to feedback from the workforce, the new material offers a more practical approach to delivery and includes real-world examples. It has been designed so that employers are able to adapt the content to reflect the individual needs of their organisation, their employees, their registered foster carers and the children in their care.

All foster carers are expected to meet national minimum standards of good practice and their supervisors play an integral role in supporting them.  Many foster carers have been out of full-time education for many years and as a result can sometimes lack confidence when documenting the positive things they do as a carer, in order to meet the standards.

The new guidance offers insight and support to supervisors which can help them to ensure their foster carers are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to do their very best for the children in their care.

Ann Harrison, National Manager for CWDC said:

"This new guidance is just what supervising social workers have been asking us for. Most importantly, it addresses the uncertainty some have had when supporting foster carers to complete the Training, Support and Development Standards.

"We found that there was a tendency to over-complicate the evidence needed to complete the workbooks, so we have now simplified the process and highlighted just how straightforward they can be when embedded in day-to-day work."

Hazel Halle, Director of Services at the Fostering Network, said:

"We were very pleased to work in partnership with the CWDC to produce training materials to support the revised guidance. We think they will help fostering services and foster carers to achieve the new Training, Support and Development Standards more easily. This should help foster carers feel more confident and better able to meet the needs of the young people and children they care for."

The training suite and guidance is free to access online at www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/foster-care/standards