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About Fostering
What is Fostering?
Foster care provides a safe, nurturing, and stable environment for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth parents. This could be anywhere between a few days to years.
There are many reasons why a child or young person may not be able to live with their birth family, including neglect, abuse, parental illness, police involvement or family breakdown.
This is where our brilliant foster carers step in. Our foster families provide our children and young people with an environment within which they can thrive. For us at Genesis, this is the true meaning of fostering; to provide vulnerable children and young people with the love, care and support they need to improve their outcomes and succeed.
Some fostering arrangements are only for a temporary period of time, while the issues that placed the child into foster care are resolved. However, children and young people may also stay living with their foster family for many years. It all depends on their individual needs and circumstances.
The Role of a Foster Carer
Becoming a foster carer is a huge and important decision. It is a step that will change your life and one that can be both exciting and nerve racking, but most of all, personally fulfilling.
We are happy to help you with this, talking with and supporting you, every step of the way. We would like to ensure that becoming a foster carer with Genesis Fostering, is smooth and enlightening. We will help you throughout the process, guiding you through the stages, to ensure you feel supported, right from the beginning, and equipped to become part of the team.
As a foster carer, you have the opportunity to make a real difference to the life of a child or young person.
01
Training
Being a foster parent is a profession and we provide lots of opportunities throughout your career to learn and develop new skills, and even gain qualifications too. This starts before you welcome your first child and never really stops.
Once you become an approved foster parent with Genesis, you’ll start to complete a number of mandatory training courses within your first year of fostering. Some of these are one-off courses, others may need to be refreshed periodically.
There’s also lots of additional courses for you to enjoy to boost your knowledge further as well as the chance to gain professional qualifications. With Genesis, there’s always a chance to learn something new.
You’ll come away with a better understanding of the role of fostering and what to expect.
You don’t need any qualifications to get started in fostering, we provide you with all the necessary training to become a foster parent.
02
Mandatory Training
There are a number of mandatory training courses that you’ll need to complete throughout your fostering career. Some are one-off courses at the start of your journey, others may need to be refreshed periodically.
These courses will support your Training Support and Development Standards (TSDS) – a workbook that evidences your knowledge around a number of standards, which must be completed within 12 months of your approval.
