Member News: Team Fostering - Our therapeutic approach: The Secure Base Model

​For children and young people that are looked after by Team Fostering foster carers, there may be various reasons that they are unable to live with their own family. This will include traumatic past experiences that resulted in them being removed from their families.

Team Fostering is committed to providing children and young people with the opportunity to overcome such experiences. We understand that moving in to live with a new family can be a difficult time for children and that it is not easy to adapt to new routines and norms in their new environment. In turn this increases the challenges that foster carers need to overcome as they welcome children and young people into their home.

In order to help our foster carers provide bespoke care that meets the needs of each and every child, we provide carers and staff with training on The Secure Base Model. The model encompasses a therapeutic approach to parenting, which helps to support children by encouraging a sense of trust in those around them. By achieving this, children and young people are more able to:

• Have an increased self-esteem
• Be and feel more independent
• Be resilient in the face of adversity
• Manage impulses and feelings
• Build long-term friendships
• Have improved relationships with caregivers and others

The Secure Base Model enhances carers’ empathy and understanding of the needs and subsequent behaviours of children and young people in their care. Our staff are very experienced and have an excellent understanding of The Secure Base Model, using the approach in supervision with foster carers, to encourage caring for children and young people in a way that will support recovery from trauma and past experiences that they have gone through before living with our carers. Our supervising social workers work with our carers to think about how these needs can be met through supportive and understanding care.

Source:
https://www.teamfostering.co.uk

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