How group work boosts skills of foster carers
Jo Stephenson
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Foster carers are trained in how to look after vulnerable children.
Project
The Park Parenting Approach
Purpose
To give foster carers the understanding and skills to look after vulnerable children
Funding
Fostering agency Park Foster Care provides the course. The core cost is about £2,000 for nine weeks if delivered to an outside organisation, not including childcare and resources
Background
Fostering is a complex role. Park Foster Care, an independent fostering agency operating across the West Midlands, North West and East Midlands, was keen to ensure its carers got the best possible training. However, generic parenting programmes did not quite fit the bill, especially when it came to the challenges of caring for children and young people who had experienced abuse or neglect. "We'd used programmes like Triple P and Webster-Stratton but found we were going off-script a lot of the time," explains agency manager Philippa Kelly, a social work consultant trained in family therapy and mental health social work with children and adults.
As a result, Kelly developed the Park Parenting Approach, a course tailored more to foster carers' needs.
Action
The course consists of nine weekly two-hour group sessions. "We can do the training individually if necessary but it works better if you're in a group because carers learn from one another," says Kelly. Carers are offered free childcare and incentive payments to attend.
The training, which draws heavily on attachment theory, combines education and practical skills to help carers cope with difficult behaviour, often a key factor in placements breaking down. "We get carers to think about causes of disruptive behaviour and help them learn about what it might feel like to be that child," says Kelly. Carers receive a course booklet and are required to do some "homework".
They are encouraged to focus on the positive and learn practical techniques such as positive praise, family conferences, and how to create "family rules".
The training, also undertaken by the agency's support workers and social workers, is mandatory for all carers, who must complete it within 12 months of joining.
Outcome
Kelly evaluated the programme as part of an MSc at University College London. Sixty-one foster carers took part, with 90 per cent completing the course. The analysis found carers' levels of concern about children's behaviour before the course had decreased on average after training. There was also an increase in carers' overall confidence as measured using the Carer-Child Dysfunctional Interaction Scale - part of the Parent Stress Index – with an increase in carers' confidence in managing children's behaviour. Of 39 carers who completed a satisfaction questionnaire, 100 per cent felt they would be able to use the skills and ideas taught on the course while 72 per cent believed it had improved their understanding of children's behaviour.