Training and support for foster carers

Part of the vision for Leicestershire County Council is that our foster carers receive excellent training, which is delivered in a way to reflect and suit their needs.

two children sitting on beanbags reading together

Training

We continuously invest in our family of foster carers, by providing access to excellent training and support. Our carers can expect a high level of support including training courses, support groups, and ongoing learning and development opportunities.

Training runs throughout the year, in a number of locations and can be accessed online and locally.

Our training courses include:

  • Education
  • Health and wellbeing (including sexual health)
  • Disability awareness
  • Challenging behaviour
  • Safeguarding
  • CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation)

We are able to offer specific training and support on subjects as requested and will always strive to provide the best. Our training officer is available to you and will be as flexible as possible, to your individual training needs as possible.

If you're a current foster carer and want to know the current training schedule, or are interested to find out more about the courses we offer, please see our personal training and development programme 2022-23.

We also offer hybrid training with a mix of face-to-face, webinars, and eLearning.

Support

Support within any family is important. For our family of foster carers, we believe it is vital to have a strong network of support, training and development opportunities in place. We are family – so we’re all here to support and help each other.

Our foster carers are supported by our service manager, the complete service and team, as well as having their own social worker, to support and guide them along their journey.

We operate 24-hour support lines but also ensure that the team are available to foster carers throughout the working week, meaning you get to speak to who you need, when you need to.

At Leicestershire County Council, we understand that our foster carers need and deserve access to the best support, training and resources in order to provide our children and young people with the best possible care. We will work together with you, to ensure we achieve this.

As members of The Fostering Network – we are part of the organisation that strives to improve policy and legislation for foster carer and children in care. Our membership, provides our foster carers with access to lots of benefits and information.

We also have an active, closed Facebook group for our foster carers, as well as Locality Support Groups and our foster carers' Portal where foster carers can upload their details.

For more information see: Why foster with us?