What training is needed for different types of fostering?

Training for fostering combines preparation before approval with further learning matched to the children a carer may look after. The exact programme varies between fostering services and according to the placement type, but it normally develops practical skills in safeguarding, safer care, child development, trauma, attachment, recording and working with other professionals.

Training before approval

Applicants are usually invited to an introductory preparation course, often known as Skills to Foster or a similar programme. It helps applicants understand the day-to-day responsibilities of fostering and consider how fostering may affect their household. Typical subjects include:

• how children enter care and why they may need a foster placement;
• safeguarding, allegations, safer caring and professional boundaries;
• the impact of separation, loss, abuse and neglect;
• attachment, child development and behaviour;
• promoting identity, culture, religion and relationships with birth families;
• recording information, confidentiality and communicating with social workers, schools and health professionals;
• managing contact, routines, risk and household expectations; and
• the assessment, approval and review process.

This training is also an opportunity to identify areas where an applicant may need additional preparation. For example, someone with no experience of caring for a baby may need more guidance about infant routines, while a household considering teenagers may need to explore boundaries, independence and online safety in greater depth.

Training after approval

Approval is not the end of a foster carer’s learning. Carers usually complete an induction and work towards the Training, Support and Development Standards for foster carers. Their supervising social worker helps identify training needs through supervision, placement discussions and regular reviews. Learning may include formal courses, e-learning, workshops, reading, reflective discussions and training linked to a particular child.

Training records are important because they show how a carer is developing and help the fostering service decide what support or preparation is appropriate before a placement is made. Refresher training may also be required when guidance, legislation or a child’s circumstances change.

How training differs by fostering type

• Kinship fostering: relatives or people already known to a child may need support with the effects of family change, divided loyalties, contact arrangements and maintaining safe relationships. Training is often adapted to the child’s history and the existing family network rather than treating the placement as an entirely new relationship.
• Emergency fostering: preparation focuses on receiving a child with limited notice, gathering essential information, making the home safe quickly and providing calm care when little is known about the child’s circumstances. Carers need to understand immediate safeguarding, missing-from-care procedures, recording and how to manage uncertainty while assessments continue.
• Respite fostering: training places particular emphasis on consistent routines, clear handovers, medication or health information, contact with the child’s main carer and helping a child move between homes without confusion. Respite carers need to understand that a short placement still requires careful planning and relationship-based care.
• Short-term fostering: carers learn how to support children through assessment, family contact and possible changes in plan. This includes managing uncertainty, keeping records and helping a child cope with transitions without making assumptions about whether the placement will become permanent.
• Long-term fostering: preparation usually explores stability, identity, life-story work, long-term relationships and helping a child develop independence. Carers may need further training as the child moves through different developmental stages, schools and forms of contact.
• Fostering babies and infants: relevant learning can cover safer sleep, feeding, practical baby care, attachment, developmental observation and responding to a baby’s cues. Carers may also need to understand the effects of prenatal substance exposure, neglect or disrupted caregiving where these are part of a child’s history.
• Therapeutic fostering: this involves deeper learning about trauma, attachment, emotional regulation, therapeutic parenting and de-escalation. Carers are expected to reflect on behaviour as communication and work consistently with therapists, social workers, education staff and health professionals.
• Sibling fostering: training may cover sibling relationships, individual needs, fairness, conflict, shared routines and how to preserve each child’s identity. Carers must be able to observe whether siblings are reassuring one another or whether one child is taking on an inappropriate caring role.
• Specialist fostering: additional preparation depends on the child’s needs. It may include disability, autism, sensory needs, significant health conditions, exploitation, offending behaviour, substance misuse, harmful sexual behaviour or complex emotional needs. Specialist training should be specific to the risks, care tasks and professional advice involved.
• Fostering to adopt: carers need to understand that the legal plan may change and that contact, information-sharing and professional involvement can be particularly sensitive. Training addresses attachment, uncertainty, birth-family relationships, life-story information and the distinction between caring for a child and making assumptions about the final legal outcome.
• Staying Put and preparing young people to leave care: learning focuses on independence, education, employment, budgeting, accommodation, health, relationships and the changing boundaries between fostering and a young adult arrangement. Carers may need guidance on how expectations, support and financial arrangements develop as a young person becomes more independent.

Training for particular household circumstances

Some preparation relates less to the placement label and more to the people providing care. Single applicants may explore backup arrangements, managing appointments, professional meetings and maintaining a reliable support network. Couples and families may need to agree responsibilities, privacy, household rules and how they will respond consistently to challenging situations. Everyone in the household should understand safer caring and know how to raise concerns.

Carers who take placements involving health needs may receive child-specific instruction from qualified professionals, such as training in medication, mobility or other delegated care tasks. This should take place before the carer is expected to carry out the task independently. Training does not replace medical advice or the responsibilities of the child’s health team.

How the training need is decided

• An initial discussion identifies the applicant’s experience, household circumstances and the types of placements being considered.
• Pre-approval preparation gives applicants a foundation and highlights any further learning needed.
• During assessment, the fostering service considers skills, capacity, support networks and the kinds of children the household could safely care for.
• After approval, the training plan is reviewed through supervision, reviews and placement planning.
• Additional learning is arranged when a child’s needs, risk profile or care plan requires it.

Applicants should ask which courses are compulsory, how training is delivered, what evidence is required and whether child-specific training is available before a placement begins. It is also sensible to ask how the fostering service supports carers to apply learning in practice, because understanding a subject in a course is different from using it consistently in family life.

The most suitable training is therefore determined by both the type of fostering and the individual child. A carer does not need to arrive with specialist knowledge of every possible need, but they do need to engage with assessment, complete required learning and recognise when advice or further training is necessary.