Training for Foster Carers

Our free 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.

Foster carer skills training

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.

Expertise from trainers who know fostering
Meet and share stories with other carers, new and experienced
Begin with our Skills to Foster (your basic training) and other essentials
Optional specialist training in health, disability, specialist topics and more
Stay compliant, gain confidence and skills, and meet the challenges of your role
Manage your own continued professional development with a free Shine account

In-person and online training

Our foster care 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.

Online courses are delivered through tutor-led virtual classrooms (with other foster carers) or as e-learning modules (individual learning).
In-person training is delivered at venues local to you, keeping them accessible and convenient.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, all training has been delivered online, though we may bring back in-person training at local venues for certain courses.

Even more determined and empowered to be able to make a positive difference for a young person who would benefit from this. Positive to start to see additional tools and ways to consider approaching the role. Good to know that there is so much support and resource to help make a success of being a foster carer.

Ekaterina, foster carer

Shine user-led training

Your training is managed through an award-winning training platform called Shine. This provides you with personalised access to foster care training and lifelong learning. It gives you access to all mandatory and optional courses, and keeps a record of your progress and achievements.

Mandatory courses are those essentials you must take when you become a foster carer, like Skills to Foster and Introduction to Safeguarding.
Optional courses are many and varied. They range from key skills right through to introductions to Autism and specialist topics like Bridge to Foster.

At National Fostering Group, we encourage a culture of lifelong learning. While we’ve focused on training for foster carers here, in fact everyone employed by our parent company has a Shine account – almost 15,000 people nationally, across adult and children’s care! There really is something for everyone, and we’re launching new courses all the time.

Our most popular fostering courses

We offer overview courses for new foster carers, as well as more bespoke training for specialist types of foster care. Our most popular courses include:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Supporting young people with Autism and Asperger’s
Attachment and bonding in abused and neglected children
Parent and child fostering

Foster care training is an investment – in you

We’re committed to providing first rate fostering that has positive outcomes for the child. Our goal is to build incredible futures for vulnerable children and young people in the UK.

One way we achieve this is by providing first rate training and making it accessible – it’s available locally as well as online in many cases, and it’s free.

By investing in you, we empower you to give children and young people a safe, supportive and nurturing environment where they can thrive and be happy. It also gives you a great sense of satisfaction in your role as a care professional.

If you have any questions about foster care training, or any other aspect of becoming a carer, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your local team.