What is this course about?
This course supports children’s social care and fostering teams to embed therapeutic, trauma-informed practice throughout their organisation, shaping service delivery, strengthening team culture, and enhancing support for children and fostering families.
Developing a therapeutic culture starts within teams. Drawing on attachment theory, PACE, and trauma-informed practice, this course supports practitioners to develop more relational and compassionate ways of working with each other, as well as strengthening more collaborative practice across teams to achieve a more consistent service. By creating environments where practitioners feel safe and supported, teams can improve outcomes and experiences for both foster carers and children.
This course examines how therapeutic, trauma-informed approaches can strengthen team culture, support effective line management, and help respond to pressures such as workload demands, stress and secondary trauma.
Supporting children who have experienced trauma and fostering families is rewarding, but it can also involve complex and emotionally demanding work, particularly alongside organisational and compliance demands. Finding time for training is not always easy. This course promotes the key strengths of creating a supportive, therapeutic working environment and provides practical strategies to strengthen team wellbeing. Most importantly, it offers valuable time for reflection, self-care, and personal renewal, enabling you to continue supporting others while maintaining your own wellbeing.
This course contributes towards your annual CPD (Continuing Professional Development) requirements and is a valuable resource for any organisations looking to improve recruitment and retention of staff.
Why join this training?
Build a therapeutic and trauma informed culture within your team & organisation
Learn how to apply a therapeutic approach within an organisational context, creating a relational and trusting team culture, strengthening relationships, reflective practice and psychological safety.
Support staff wellbeing and resilience
Recognise the impact of stress, secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, and develop strategies to support wellbeing and staff retention.
Improve collaboration across services
Explore how teams can work more effectively together, adopting a relational and trauma informed approach to providing consistent, joined-up support.
Strengthen support for foster carers
Develop therapeutic, trauma-informed approaches to supporting foster carers and managing challenges and risk.
Enhance outcomes for children
Understand how a therapeutic and trauma informed professional culture can create the right environment for children to feel safe, stable and supported.
What will you learn?
- Key principles of therapeutic and trauma-informed practice and how attachment, PACE and relational approaches can be applied within organisations.
- How to develop a therapeutic team culture including therapeutic management skills, team relationships, staff wellbeing and retention.
- The impact of secondary trauma, stress and compassion fatigue on practitioners, early signs and the importance of providing therapeutic support.
- Skills in providing therapeutic support to foster carers, focused on creating connection through empathy, curiosity and understanding.
- How to apply trauma-informed approaches to risk, communication and decision-making.
Ways to recognise and respond to your own wellbeing and self-care needs.
Who is this training for?
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Fostering, Kinship and children’s team managers
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Social workers
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Support workers
Learn from trusted experts
Olivia Clark has 16 years of experience supporting children, families, and foster carers as a qualified social worker and manager. Olivia has expertise in therapeutic and trauma-informed practice, holding DDP Level 1 training. Joining the Fostering Network in 2023, Olivia is a senior practice consultant, delivering training, webinars, and practice support. Drawing on both professional and lived experience, Olivia is passionate about helping carers and services develop trauma-informed, relationship-based practice.
Other date options:
Booking details:
Member rate £110 plus VAT
Non-member rate £149 plus VAT
This course will be delivered via MS Teams, registration will begin at 9:15, confirmed delegates will be sent joining instructions by email a few days before the course start date.
For more information contact [email protected] or speak to your fostering service about funding a place on this course.
View our cancellation policy
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