Compass Fostering is a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation. We are committed to providing outstanding services, putting people and children at centre of everything we do. Our goal is to make continuous improvements for the children and foster carers we support throughout the UK.
We believe that the best carers are always keen to learn, be that through reading books about fostering or accessing our specialist training. This is why as a Compass foster carer, you’ll have access to comprehensive support and training, equipping you with the skills you need to make a real difference in a child’s life. By taking advantage of these resources, you can reflect on your commitment to fostering and gain valuable professional insight.
Foster care training for applicants
Our foster care training requirements are each of our applicants are expected to attend a 3-day Skills to Foster training course whilst in assessment with us. This course is an introduction to fostering designed to help you learn about foster care alongside other potential foster parents going through the process too. These training sessions are an important foundation to give you the confidence to have your first foster child placed with you.
Once you are an approved foster carer, you will also be asked to complete Induction training with us. This will give you vital safeguarding skills, helping you to be the best foster parent you can be.
Training for our foster carers
In addition to the 3-day Skills to Foster and Induction training courses which every applicant (including partners, or just you if you are a single parent foster carer) must attend, you’ll also benefit from a range of specialist therapeutic courses throughout your fostering career, designed and delivered by a leading expert in the field. These include (but are not limited to):
- Issues of Attachment and Trauma
- Understanding Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Parent and Child Training
- Management and Support for ADHD
- Managing Anger
- Positive Psychology and Building Resilience
- “Talking Your Way Out of Trouble”
- Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and Young People (UASC)
- Secure Base
- Paediatric First Aid
- Cultural Awareness and Diversity
We believe in empowering our carers to develop a full range of skills and professional expertise – not only to help and support the children they look after, but also to enrich and enhance their own lives. These are all free training courses for carers, which we actively encourage you to make the most of.
We also have specialist and therapeutic fostering training our carers can attend if they want to further their fostering career and gain new skills and experience.
We offer specialist training for looking after:
- Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC)
- Parent and child (P&C)
- Disability and special seeds children
- Children and young people that need therapeutic foster care
Our Compass REACH approach
The REACH approach is more than just a training programme, it is a whole approach to fostering. The aim is to be optimistic and to enter fostering thinking that change is possible. It emphasises the immense importance of building trusting relationships with children and young people as being at the heart of fostering.
Through the REACH approach we will aim to equip foster carers to build resilience, to provide stability and offer a child centred methodology and attitude to each individual child and young person. Our goal of enhancing and improving children’s lives for the better underpins our actions, plans and services.
REACH is a theoretical framework based on resilience, attachment and a range of social support mechanisms, which strengthens and underlines our practice by which children can be helped to move towards a sense of security and improve their emotional wellbeing.
Foster carer training courses within The REACH Training Programme include:
- Introduction to Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Attachment and Trauma
- Managing Anger
- Positive Psychology and Resilience Building
- Managing Stress, Anxiety and Depression
At Compass, we aim to build a community that offers support and friendship. Our local groups meet regularly, allowing foster carers to share thoughts, experiences and information in a relaxed setting. From local coffee mornings to family fun days, from support groups to conferences, you’ll be warmly welcomed as part of the family.
