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Kent County Council Fostering Service is committed to
providing high quality foster care for children in Kent. We believe
that foster carers play a crucial role in promoting good outcomes
for children in our care and as such should have opportunities to
develop their skills and knowledge, as professionals, in the foster
care service. Payments for Skills is a reward based system for
foster carers and is linked to carers' training and
development.
We are in the initial stages of implementing the Children's
Workforce Development Standards for Foster Care for new and
existing carers.
The seven standards are:
- understand the principles and values essential for fostering
children and young people
- understand your role as a foster carer
- understand health and safety and healthy care
- know how to communicate effectively
- understand the development of children and young people
- safeguard children and young people (keep them safe from
harm)
- develop yourself
All of our registered foster carers are given an induction
programme during their first year of fostering and are offered
on-going training and development opportunities to enable them to
care for Kent's foster children.
There are also opportunites for carers to complete qualification
based training including NVQ Level 3, a BTEC Level 4 and a
Foundation Degree Foster Carer Pathway which is being
developed.
Newly approved foster carers are required to attend an Induction
Session. This informs them of Kent County Council's Fostering
Service, allows them to meet members of the Fostering Teams and
existing Kent carers and introduces the training and development
opportunities available to them.
Support information and advice for existing
carers
- The out-of-hours telephone advice service is available from
5.00pm to 8.30am
- Foster carer support groups meet locally and regularly
providing an opportunity for carers to:
share experiences
a forum to discuss good care practice
to learn from others
- Foster Care Quality Service Awards - these bi-annual awards
recognise and celebrate some of the excellent and remarkable work
undertaken by foster carers in Kent
- Don't forget your fostering social worker and social work
assistant is here to help you every step of the way.
Find
out more about the training and support available to new foster
carers
Useful
reading
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