The majority of looked after children are now in some kind of foster care and carers are expected to cope with many children who have complex needs and challenging behaviour. If foster carers are to take on these increasing responsibilities they clearly require good preparation, comprehensive support and the right kind of training. Yet currently, the structure and quality of training vary significantly, and there is little evidence about the impact of training on foster carers or the children they look after. This article by Andrea Warman, Clare Pallett and Stephen Scott uses evaluation material from a new post-approval training programme for foster carers in Southwark and draws upon education research to argue that there must be more debate about how we train and the role that foster carers could play in training their peers.
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