At Lotus, we are committed to providing foster carers with training and development that enables them to develop the skills and experience they need to be able to best meet the needs of children and young people in their care.

We make it as easy as possible for our foster carers to continue their learning and development by offering over 80 training courses. Learning can be accessed in many ways; it could be in our office, in a training location, one-on-one with your social worker or online, depending on what works best for you.

This will include:

Skills to Foster

The first training you’ll take part in is Skills to Foster, the pre-approval training course. It’s a course that all foster carers in the UK undertake.

The team at Lotus ensure it’s an exciting, inspiring and very in-depth course that will give you all the basics you need to know about becoming a registered foster carer. You’ll learn all about things, such as why children may come into care, the legal process, caring for children safely, record keeping, and how we support you in your role as a foster carer. You’ll also get to meet other prospective foster carers and take part in some informal discussions and activities.

The course is equivalent to 3 days of training; this can be run on different days and locations depending on applicants’ needs.

Don’t worry, there are no right or wrong answers. There are no tests, and you certainly don’t need to remember every single thing. It’s all about learning the basics and reflecting on your own understanding of the role.

Mandatory Training

There are a number of training courses that all foster carers need to complete, either during their assessment or within their first year of fostering. They are all 1-2 day courses, held in venues local to you. The mandatory courses include the following:

• Safeguarding
• Safer caring
• First Aid
• Record keeping
• Understanding behaviour
• Supporting children in education
• Additional and specialist training

In addition to our mandatory training, we run a full calendar of specialist training, which you can undertake as you wish to, to help build your skills and experience. These include things such as autism awareness, paediatric first aid, ADHD, attachment, self-harm, or moving children on to adoption.

Training, Support and Development (TSD) Standards for Foster Care

In England, all foster carers are required to complete the Training Support and Development Standards within 12 to 18 months of being approved as a foster carer. If two adults foster together, they are both required to complete the TSD workbooks.

The Training, Support and Development (TSD) standards provide a national benchmark that sets out what foster carers should know, understand and be able to do within the first 12-18 months after being approved. The TSD standards are part of the National Minimum Standards, and Ofsted inspects fostering services on achievement of TSD by their foster carers.

Lotus Foster Care plays a key role in helping foster carers complete the TSD standards within the required timescales. We will be here to guide you and to support you throughout.

Please see the link to Department for Education website containing downloadable work books: