Diagrama FoundationWe ensure our carers receive the training and skills they need to tackle foster care challenges head-on.
Many people who want to make a difference to young lives through fostering worry they won’t have the skills to meet the needs of the children placed with them. It’s completely natural to be concerned and you deserve to have confidence in your own abilities as a foster carer before inviting a child to share your home. Don’t worry, we can support you with all the training you need.
Don't let a lack of experience hold you back
The types of foster care training we provide
You will not be expected to have any relevant qualifications or training experience before you are accepted on the foster carer vetting process – as we will support you with comprehensive training both before and during your time with us as a foster carer.
Here’s an outline of the training you can expect to receive:
Pre-approval training
The first training you will be asked to complete, which is a mandatory training as part of your application to become a Diagrama foster carer, is the Skills to Foster training course.
The Skills to Foster™ course provides a seamless way to train and assess prospective foster carers. Designed by the Fostering Network, it aims to prepare new applicants for the challenges of fostering. It provides a flexible resource that supports foster carers taking on different types of placements, including family and friends foster carers.
The 3-day course focuses on the practical, day-to-day skills that all foster carers need. It links into the Training, Support and Development Standards in England, other professional development qualifications, as well as a competency-based assessment process.
The course doesn’t just offer benefits for you – it considers the impact of fostering on your family too and you will be provided with a handbook to support your family - My Family Foster, for sons and daughters of prospective foster carers - and a handbook for you to use throughout your training.
Post approval training
Once approved as a Diagrama foster carer, we then offer regular training opportunities which cover a wide range of topics to help you understand how best to support children with a variety of complex needs.
Our training is delivered by subject experts and aims to provide you with a broad range of skills and understanding of the types of challenges you may face when fostering a child. It is designed to give practical guidance too - not just the theory - with tools and resources you’ll need to provide a child or young person with a safe, loving environment.
You’ll learn about setting boundaries, routines, play and emotional support as well as parenting teenagers, working with difficult behaviour and parenting children with ADHD.
Training sessions may cover a variety of topics including:
- Non-violent resistance
- Understanding trauma
- Child Sexual Exploitation
- Sensory Integration
- Life Story work
- Preparation for Independence / endings.
All training is offered free of charge. We also encourage prospective and approved adopters going through the vetting process with our sister organisation Diagrama Adoption to participate in any training offered.
Our training calendar is updated regularly. We encourage all our foster carers to attend our training sessions wherever possible.
