Training and Preparation Groups
If you and your local authority decide to progress with your application, you will be invited to attend a preparation and training course hosted by your local authority fostering team.
Usually referred to as Skills to Foster training – the course will provide you with more in depth information about what the role of fostering entails and the expectations of you as a foster carer.
You will have the opportunity to explore what types of fostering are available and hear from foster carers who are already caring for children and young people.
Each local authority have their own staff from the fostering team who deliver the training, which usually runs over three full days and takes place three to four times a year.
The course is the start of your training journey, which will provide you with the initial skills to start fostering.
Once you are approved as a foster carer, your local authority will continue to provide bespoke training courses relevant to fostering, at local venues across the Tees Valley.
All foster carers are required to complete the Training Support and Development Standards (TSD) in the first year of being approved as a foster carer.
The TSD standards form part of your induction into your new role as a foster carer. They set out a national minimum benchmark for what foster carers should know, understand and be able to do within their first year after being approved.