Member News: Team Fostering - Our Psychology Workshops

At Team Fostering our mission statement is simple; Putting Children's Futures First. This embodies our not-for-profit status that drives all decision-making with children at heart, and is embedded throughout the agency.

As an agency with ethical aims we continually seek ways to improve our service, whether that's through innovative support packages for carers, unique training opportunities or child-centred initiatives. In turn this supports foster carers to meet the needs of children and young people in their care.

To this end, in 2018 we partnered with John Sands, a clinical psychologist to form our own Psychological Support Service, a new service that offers foster carers further specialised support. John's work is underpinned by attachment and resilience theories that align with the therapeutic framework used by Team Fostering, The Secure Base Model. 

The service initially launched as a 1-year pilot to run from 2018 to 2019 but, following an extremely positive response from foster carers, it was extended to continue into Summer 2020. The aim of the service is to provide support and information to carers and staff that will strengthen their ability to tailor care for individual children, providing them with an opportunity to recover from early traumatic experiences. 

John continues to be available across four of Team Fostering's offices; North Tyneside, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and South Normanton; for one day each month. There are two elements to the service; workshops that are open to all carers and staff in the morning, followed by individual consultations over the afternoon. By adopting this model we hope to be able to support as many carers as possible, both to enhance their understanding of the impact of trauma on children and how to help them recover from their experiences, but also to have the opportunity to talk in detail about particular issues.

Team Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit fostering agency covering the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. If you're interested in becoming a foster carer, contact us to learn more about the role, support, training and salary by:

calling us on 0800 292 2003
emailing [email protected]
submitting an online enquiry by clicking here
 
Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

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