The Head, Heart, Hands programme gave us an exciting opportunity to work closely with foster carers and fostering services for three years as they explored how social pedagogy could help them in their work. We walked side by side with them as they put social pedagogic theory, tools and concepts into practice to help support the children and young people in their care to achieve their full potential. In these social pedagogy in practice resources we have worked with foster carers, social workers and social pedagogues to bring some of our learning to life.
These six resources and set of short films aim to share with you some of the learning that foster carers who took part in the Head, Heart, Hands programme found beneficial to their work and to the lives of the children and young people they looked after.
Foster carers share their stories of putting social pedagogy into practice
These six downloadable resources cover vital fostering topics, from building strong and effective relationships, to boosting resilience and preparing for important meetings and reviews. In each resource, foster carers share their experiences of using social pedagogic concepts and models to help them in their role. The theory behind each model is presented along with some reflection exercises for you to think about at home.
- Building stronger relationships in the team around the child
- Preparing for panels, assessments and reviews
- Education and achievement
- Building relationships with children and young people
- Building resilience
- Supporting children and young people through placement moves
These two short film reflect some of the learning from the Head, Heart, Hands programme and bring to life some of the stories shared by foster carers.
Four key models from social pedagogy
Social pedagogy is a rich academic discipline with a wealth of theories, concepts and tools. During Head, Heart, Hands foster carers were supported to explore social pedagogy through taking part in a 10 day experiential learning course, and being supported by social pedagogues to continue to explore putting what they had learnt into practice. Four models were particularly well received – with foster carers feeding back that they had a big impact on how they approached their work and were able to support the children and young people in their care.
