In March 2013, Trinity College London commissioned the National Children’s Bureau to work with families who foster, in order to build foster carers’ confidence in engaging with arts and cultural activities. The aim was to train foster carers to become Arts Award Discover and Explore advisers.
The Families who Foster training and support programme was devised to take foster carers through to adviser status. Specifically for this 10-month project, the whole process was geared towards family learning – at the same time as being trained as advisers, the foster carers took children (their fostered children plus their own children or grandchildren) through the awards process too.
The local project partners were The Customs House (in South Tyneside) and South Tyneside’s looked after children education and care services; the national partners joining Trinity and the National Children’s Bureau, were the Centre for Understanding Social Pedagogy and The Fostering Network.
Read about the success of the programme in Foster Care magazine’s recent report