Training helps our carers reach Affinity and beyond

One of the reasons that we refer to our team as the Affinity family is that we firmly believe that every individual within our fostering team has a vital role to play. That’s why, aside from offering 24/7 professional support to all our carers, we also provide a comprehensive training schedule for both our new and experienced carers. Even for the most seasoned foster carers, there will always be new situations that will arise that will test their wealth of knowledge. After all, as John Dewey quoted, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

All our foster carers have a unique set of skills and life experiences that make them ideal for the role, but there are also substantial benefits from specialist training. Affinity’s training schedule ranges from lessons on attachment and secure base, managing challenging behaviour, and understanding drugs and alcohol, all the way through to radicalisation workshops, and specific sessions designed for men who are foster carers. We try to ensure that our fostering family is provided with all the knowledge and support they need to succeed, because if our carers have the right knowledge and skills, the young people in their care will be more likely to achieve a successful placement.

Our training sessions also provide a social aspect for our carers and enables them to meet other people going through similar experiences. Usually, they are face to face, but throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have moved all of our training to Zoom. Although the opportunity to meet in person has been temporarily removed, online training allows the opportunity to socialise and virtually meet carers from further afield. Our online Diploma in Play Therapy, as well as our Diploma in Attachment, have proved to be extremely popular amongst our carers.  Our session sizes range from our 1-1 Foster Carer Keeping in Touch Day with our Senior Management Team, to 25 attendees for our FosterTalk refresher sessions.

We also work to make sure that our carers have the space and time to be able to ask questions and fully immerse themselves in their learning. So, we manage attendees based on the topic and focus of each workshop. This means that no-one feels like they have been left behind or not heard. Affinity also schedules a number of sessions on the same topic, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to fit their continued professional development into their schedules.

Whether you are interested in becoming a foster carer and would like to learn more about the training we provide to prepare you for your first placement, or if you are an experienced carer who would like to learn more about our Continuous Development and Training  Programme; we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us and one of our team will answer all your questions for you.