our course offering
Virtual Courses
- What are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
- Statistics of those affected by ACEs
- Long term affect of ACEs
- How we can achieve the correct therapeutic relationship
- Ways to support children and young people with ACE challenges
Allegations and Standards of care Procedures
- To explain the differences between allegations, standard of care and complaints and why and how they are made
- To consider a child's perspective in relation to making allegations
- Roll of the SSW and wider service during investigations
- Consider Independent support offered and how this can be utilised.
- Information and guidance on what to do if an allegation is made against you or a family member and its impact on wider family.
- Reflect on good practise to avoid allegations occurring.
Conflict Resolution
- Understand conflict better
- What is work-place conflict?
- Identify common styles of conflict.
- Identifying conflict styles and consider ways in which to reflect
- Identify behaviours that are likely to trigger events leading to conflict
- Identify how to apply solution focused conversations on a one to one basis.
Compassion Fatigue and Blocked Care in Foster Carers.
- To understand what Compassion fatigue/Blocked Care is
- Compassion Fatigue and its similarities with PTSD.
- Exploration of PTSD cycle focusing on neurological response to trauma.
- Management tools including grounding techniques
- Recognising some of the warning sign
- To understand the impact of compassion fatigue on a carers role.
- How to look after yourself and understand why self-care is important
Delegated Authority
- Increase understanding of delegated authority and the legislative context
- Consider the issues round the sharing and balance of responsibilities when delegating authority
- Consider implications for local care planning and practice in your service when working in this way
- To consider the day-to-day usage of delegated authority and its impact on fostering outcomes for children and young people in care
De-escalation and Managing Behaviour
- Understanding aggression
- Understand how feelings influence behaviour
- Identify general psychological signs of anger
- Recognise the levels of anger in young people
- Learn appropriate interventions for each level of anger including actions to avoid being restrained or attacked
- Consider ways to manage your own anger
- Have de-escalation and diffusion techniques
Record Keeping & Observation Skills
- Understanding the purpose of foster carer records and how they might be used.
- Consideration of the legal and policy guidelines in relation to what is recorded and how
- Exploring roles within fostering and the context of recording
- Considering and reflecting on own practice and skills
- Understanding the importance of records during allegations and SOCs
- Best practice in relation to national & local guidelines.
Loss and Grief in Fostering and Adoption
- Explore and develop practical approaches to help support children and young people who experience significant loss or bereavement in their lives
- Understand the responses to loss experienced by children from the child’s perspective
- Gain knowledge of practical support systems to support children and families dealing with loss
- Understand how to approach working with children and families where loss has occurred
- Consider the types of support available to bereaved children and families
- To explore the causes of placement breakdown
- To develop an understanding of a child's capacity to flourish whilst in care.
- To consider underlying factors of placement breakdown
- To look at the events and behaviours leading up to placement difficulties and breakdown
- To identify the actions foster carers can take to reduce the risk of breakdowns occuring.
- Be aware of support needs and networks leading up to, during and after a placement breakdown.
Making Placements Work
- To develop an understanding of a child's capacity to flourish whilst in care.
- To consider the child's needs and how these will be met.
- create ways of working with children and wider elements of the child's support systems to improve outcomes.
- To utilise a strengths based approach to care giving and supporting children to a sense of accomplishment.
- Consider how a child may cope, using adaptive behaviours and to support them towards a place of resilience.
Online Safety - Cyber Bullying
- How children use the internet and technology
- To reflect on the potential risks children face online.
- understand how to respond if you are concerned that a child you have responsibility for is the target or a perpetrator of cyber bullying.
- Understand the risks of using the internet unsafely and its impact.
- Be aware of what cyberbullying is, and consider how to support a child
- Cyberbullying and its links in relation to the legal perspectives of online pornography
Online Safety - Gaming - Dark Web
- How children use the internet and technology and gaming
- The potential risks children face online
- What is the Dark Web?
- How does the Dark Web work?
- Why must carers understand the Dark Web better?
- What threats are there on the Dark Web?
- What steps can you take to address these threats on the Dark Web?
- Understand the simple things you as a parent/carer can do to make the internet safer for your child/young person
- Dismiss some of the myths that surround the Dark Web.
- To examine family time and its context for looked-after children
- To support carers to develop skills in relation to family time in order to support children with their sense of self.
- To enable carers to develop efficient strategies for dealing with family time complexities and how to support wider discussion.
- To provide a safe place to reflect on experiences in order to problem solve and support both the child, the carer and birth parents.
- To consider the common themes in relation to safer care within the fostering home.
- To discuss and explore the foundations of good safer care practice.
- To understand guidance and legislation.
- To explore risk and harm in the context of fostering.
- To review and discuss own practice and consider guidance.
- To explore common issues that present with the context of safer care
Introduction to PACE
- Explore PACE as an approach to care giving.
- Explore attachment, trauma and brain development, and how these inform the use of PACE
- Explore how PACE can be an effective approach for parenting children and young people who have experienced trauma
- Explore Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE)
- Explore how foster carers support children with attachment difficulties
- Reflect on the complexities that may be present when using PACE in practice
Introduction to Therapeutic Life Story Work.
Available soon
- What is life story work?
- exploration of information and resources for the child and what should be recorded
- To understand the importance for foster carer records and reasons for recording information
- The importance of trauma informed approach in relation to Life story work
- Exploring identity
- Importance of Participation
Men Who Foster - Changing the Narrative!
- Consider the profile of foster carer's and looked after children today.
- Provide an opportunity to share and discuss experiences with other male foster carers
- Consider how gender influences childcare work and the outcomes of this.
- Discuss the opportunity to change the narrative for some children and young people.
- Reflect of the role male care givers can have on those who have previously experienced abuse and neglect, and the impact this has on Safer Caring
- Consider support systems for male carers
Understanding Self Harm
- To gain an understanding of what self-harm is
- To consider trauma and attachment difficulties in relation to self harm
- What might cause Looked after Children to self-harm and why it might be maintained
- Explore ways in which foster carers might be able to help in empowering a Looked After Child to control their self harming behaviour
- Identify other helpful and useful resources.
Impact of Fostering on Birth Family
- To consider how fostering can affect different elements of birth family
- To discuss both the positive and negative impact on birth children and wider family
- Identify how we support birth family better
- to consider Allegation's and SOC's in the context of wider birth family
- Discuss family contracts and safer care issues
- Discuss the role of the FSW in supporting the Birth family
- Understanding the national profile of trauma and characteristics
- The biological and psychological implications of experiencing trauma
- Identify the symptoms of exposure to trauma
- How to engage in a regulating therapeutic relationship
- Understand the drivers of complex behaviours in young people
- Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s), PTSD and Hyper-Vigilance
- To develop a working level of knowledge and understanding in relation to CSE
- Consider Trauma and attachment in relation to CSE
- To explore secure base care giving as a medium to support children at risk of CSE
- To consider the risks, particular for Looked After Child and young people
- To understand and recognise some of the signs and issues symptoms related to CSE
- To reflect on the impact of CSE and consider some of the behavioural traits that arise from it
Additional courses coming soon!