Fostering changes

Caring for looked after children can be an immensely stressful and complex task and foster carers need opportunities to process their experiences and reflect on their thoughts and feelings. The Fostering Changes programme provides practical advice and training for foster carers in order to develop their skills in managing difficult and challenging child behaviour and forming positive relationships with their foster children.

This unique training course has been developed from that programme. It brings a collaborative approach to training and is designed for use with foster carers in the local authority, voluntary and independent sectors. It draws substantially on ideas from current parenting training programmes that use a cognitive behavioural approach in order to develop skills.

Evaluation of the course has revealed significant improvements in carer–child interaction, child emotional problems and specific child problems causing most worry to carers. It has also shown a beneficial effect on carers’ sense of confidence and self-efficacy.

This training programme will make an invaluable contribution to the support and retention of foster carers, and will enable them to meet children’s needs as well as adapt to changing priorities

Who is this training programme for?

It will benefit foster carers looking after children under 12 years old and will equip them with the skills and knowledge to tackle a wide range of symptoms as well as manage difficult behaviour.

Supervising social workers will also gain from the programme a sound working knowledge of cognitive behavioural strategies.

What you will find in this training programme

The programme includes twelve core sessions. Each session covers key ideas and skills for training as well as the preparation needed.

• Session 1: Establishing the group and understanding and recording behaviour
• Session 2: Influences on behaviour: antecedents and consequences
• Session 3: Giving effective praise
• Session 4: Positive attention
• Session 5: Using communication skills to help children regulate their emotions
• Session 6: Supporting children’s learning
• Session 7: Rewards and reward charts
• Session 8: Giving instructions and selective ignoring
• Session 9: Positive discipline and setting limits
• Session 10: Time out and problem-solving strategies
• Session 11: Endings and review
• Session 12: Acknowledging positive changes and taking care of yourselves.
   

Exercises and comprehensive guidance notes are included, as is a CD ROM containing a full set of slides for presentation and handouts.

Authors

Karen Bachmann initially trained as a social worker and worked with children and families before focusing on project management and training design and delivery.

Kathy Blackeby has a social work background and has worked for many years with children and families before specialising in mental health. She was part of the team which developed the original Fostering Changes programme.

Caroline Bengo is a qualified social worker who specialises in working with looked after children, and supporting foster and adoptive families, working therapeutically and providing direct work and family work.

Kirsty Slack is a qualified social worker who specialises in child and adolescent mental health, working with children and their families, both in the community and within the hospital setting.

Dr Matt Woolgar is a clinical psychologist at the Maudsley Hospital. He splits his time between research on parenting attachment and psychopathology and clinical work on the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems, especially those in the care system.

Dr Hilary Lawson is a qualified social worker, counsellor and lecturer in higher education. She teaches and researches in the area of young people, and has published on practice education and post-adoption contact.

Professor Stephen Scott is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, where he works in a multidisciplinary team in the National Adoption and Fostering Clinic. His research includes developing and testing programmes to improve the carer-child relationship and enhance the young people’s quality of life.