Training & Development
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Our fostering training programme
Abacus Preparation to Foster Training is a 4-day programme which complements your assessment. It focuses on learning about the role of a foster carer and preparing you to become a foster carer. It covers:
- Understanding children in foster care
- Equality and diversity
- What do foster carers do
- Looking after other people’s children
- Working together
- Safe caring
- Safeguarding
- Transitions for children and young people
- Transition of your family becoming foster carers
Abacus recognises that fostering is a lifestyle and, as such, you will not be the only person who is involved in fostering. With this in mind, we also hold birth children and ‘family and friend’ workshops alongside the Preparation to Foster programme.
Induction Training
Abacus Fostering offers an excellent induction programme supporting you in the new role of being a foster carer. The courses are geared to develop your skills and attributes needed for the fostering role. As a new foster carer, you can expect to attend training on:
- Health for looked after children
- First aid
- Transitions and endings
- Child Protection Level 3
- Attachment for fostering and adoption
- PACE parenting
- Safe caring
- Training and development standards
- Supporting children to have contact with their birth families and siblings
- Education for looked after children
- Child sexual exploitation
- Children who abscond and go missing
- Administering medication
- Health and safety in the foster home
Our commitment
We are committed to ongoing training for all our foster carers and will support you in your developing role as a foster carer. We provide both in-house and external training, which focuses on your individual development and learning needs. We ensure that training is flexible, interesting, fun, dynamic, and that it is useful to you in your role as a foster carer.
Our approach to fostering development
Abacus Fostering is a PACE (therapeutic parenting) led service. PACE stands for being Playful, Accepting, using Curiosity and being Empathetic. We recognise that children have had difficult experiences which impact their behaviours. We aim to give you the best understanding, knowledge, and tools to support children and enrich their lives.
To ensure everyone can attend our training for foster parents we have a flexible approach which is to hold training online, on weekdays during school time, some evenings and occasional weekends.