Find out if you could be a foster carer
In a few simple questions, you’ll know if you’re suitable to apply to become a foster carer.
Our free foster care training is designed to give you valuable skills, confidence and greater satisfaction in your role. You won’t have to go far – our training courses are delivered at a venue close to you and also online where possible.
Professional training courses are available to all our foster carers. They’re completely free, high-quality, flexible and straightforward. They’ve been designed to give you valuable skills and help you grow in confidence and knowledge.
With our training you’ll be able to:
At National Fostering Group we provide two types of training to our foster carers:
You can learn more about both types of training below.
Our foster family training has been created to fit around your life. This means you won’t have to go far to find one of our training centres, and you can access many courses from your computer, tablet and smartphone.
You can find all your courses in the Shine foster care training hub online.
Your required training begins during your application to become a foster carer and continues throughout your time with us in the form of additional professional development.
Mandatory training is designed to give you a solid foundation. It provides you with the skills and knowledge you need to be a foster carer with National Fostering Group.
It also gives you the confidence to be your best in your role and, critically, helps you meet the compliance and regulatory requirements required.
Initial basic training falls into two categories:
Your training journey begins while you’re completing your application to be a foster carer. Your assessing social worker will provide you with a Shine account, where you can manage your courses and view your progress and achievements.
Mandatory foster carer training during this stage covers:
The questions that I was asked in my panel interview I already knew the answers to because of the Skills To Foster training.
Once you’ve been approved as a foster carer, you’re eligible to receive your first placement. Your supervising social worker will encourage you to get started on the rest of your mandatory training courses as soon as possible. They include topics such as:
As you quickly become a more experienced foster carer, you’ll probably find you’d like to know more about certain topics. As well as having natural curiosity, you might have a foster child with specific needs you’d like to support.
You might also want to specialise in particular types of foster care. It’s worth noting that certain types of placement that require specific skills and training can attract a higher fostering allowance.
Our optional foster care training courses offer a rich curriculum, designed by fostering experts and delivered free of charge. There’s no limit on your learning across many topics.
Optional training is arranged into key areas like the ones listed below:
These are just a few examples of the courses you could take. Log into your Shine account to browse 100s of free foster care courses.
Note: Our Fostering Finances courses are delivered by our partner, The Fostering Network, and are not available through Shine, though they can be added to your record.
If there’s something you’re interested in that’s not on the list, speak with your supervising social worker because we might be able to provide it ourselves or source it from a third party partner.
National Fostering Group is part of Outcomes First Group. Our sister organisations work with adults and children, and include clinical and wellbeing services, specialist schools and residential care homes. This gives us access to a wide range of training support for our carers.
Our most popular courses include:
Just to thank you for this chance to learn things I didn’t know and be able to take this on my fostering journey with me. I look forward to completing more courses as a result of this so again thank you.
Whether it’s an e-learning course, virtual classroom or face-to-face training, as a foster carer with National Fostering Group, you’ll book all your foster parent training through Shine. It’s our online fostering training hub.
This award-winning platform provides a personalised training journey where you can manage personal development and keep on top of training compliance. Almost 15,000 people nationally, across adult and children’s care, use Shine to access and manage their training.
With the Shine training platform you can:
Your supervising social worker will help you get to grips with the system. Shine also offers excellent user support.
Once you’ve started the process of becoming a foster carer, you’ll be given access to your free Shine account and supported by your assessing social worker. We give you access before you’ve been approved so you can complete some of your mandatory training courses.
You’ll continue to use this account after you’ve been approved too, to continue your mandatory training. Once this is completed, you can use it to do as many courses as you like – there’s no limit.
On the front page on Shine when you log in, you’re given an overview of your account and access to view everything in more detail.
For example, you’ll be able to see a list of the mandatory courses you need to complete. You can also see which courses you’ve done, which are in progress, and any optional courses your supervising social worker feels would benefit you.
We’ve also produced a training course to help you get the most out of Shine, including how to book courses and how to download your training record for yourself.
At National Fostering Group we provide our foster carers with a wide range of practical support. You can learn more about the support available to you here.
