Designed for fostering services who want that extra layer of therapeutic support. We know how devastating it is when carers give notice on a child, both for the agency and the child themselves, but we also recognise that sometimes this could have been avoided if the right support was in place.
Our wrap around packages aim to help keep carers and children connected. Upskilling carers to feel upskilled, supported and empathetic to a child’s trauma response rather than feeling overwhelmed and disempowered.
By working in partnership with you, we can contribute to happy, therapeutic homes where children can begin to heal and carers make the difference they came in to this job to make!
Our wrap around support packages are bespoke and designed with your needs in mind. They can include:
The wrap around package:
You can choose which of these options are most helpful for you and your organisation. However our recommendation would be as follows:
1. Therapeutic Training
In order for children to be able to flourish in care, we believe that upskilling everyone to be trauma informed, attachment aware and therapeutic is an essential first step. We roll out our Teaching Positive Connections course to everyone within the service to ensure everyone has the training they need.
Alongside this, we offer ongoing face to face workshops to carers who have completed the modules. Offering them the chance to talk to a professional about real life scenarios, children and experiences to bring the theory to life. These sessions help embed the training on a practical level and resonate with carers personal experience.
2. Initial care plan meetings
One of our team will be allocated to your organisation to support you with the therapeutic wrap around package. Part of their initial work will be to sit down with the SSW and foster carers who have welcomed new children (or need some support with existing ones) and develop a plan based on the emotional needs of the children that have come into their care.
This process assesses the emotional and mental health and wellbeing needs of the children based on the known history and presenting behaviours, offering strategies and guidance to help support a child’s behaviour. These sessions are designed to help carers feel equipped to support the child/ young person, before complex trauma based behaviours arise, reducing reactive responses and encouraging reflective ones.
3. Monthly therapeutic support check in’s
We recognise that the fostering sector is often working with high stress levels and crisis much of the time. It isn’t easy to support children with complex trauma and although it is extremely rewarding, it can be emotionally draining for both the fostering team and the Carers themselves. We provide monthly support groups to both carers and the fostering team to give them an opportunity to talk to a therapist about the day-to-day incidents that occur with children. Our therapists will unpick scenarios with them and help them reflect on the TPC Model whilst offering a safe place to offload and explore their own responses.
*Please note: these are not therapy sessions or supervision sessions but more a reflective, safe space to explore different responses and strategies to try with children based on the day to day experiences that are coming up for a family
4. Debrief sessions
We will do everything we can to help foster families stay together, but in the sad event of a child leaving a home we will be there to help the foster carer process things. These sessions will be safe, nurturing sessions where the carer can explore the events that lead up to giving notice and offer a chance to self-reflect.
It is important to note however that these sessions will not be suitable in every scenario and will require some time for the carer to personally process things before the session takes place. It is also important to note that these are not emergency sessions to try to convince a carer to keep a child but instead an opportunity for them to reflect and learn from the experience – so that they are in a better place to support the next child.
5. Therapeutic Support
Alongside our therapeutic training and support for fostering staff and carers, we can also support the children directly. We will allocate a therapist/ therapists to referrals that come from your organisation to ensure children are receiving the emotional therapeutic support they need to process experiences and make sense of their feelings and thoughts. We will work with you to determine the right type of therapy and will work alongside you as therapy takes place. Offering support and guidance as we go.
Please note: The therapist for the child will not be the same therapist as the one supporting the agency but will become part of the therapeutic team around you.
Additional Support
Therapeutic team meetings:
As the wrap around care evolves and grows, you may find you have a number of professionals from TPC and other organisations supporting you. In this case, we would recommend regular team meetings where all of the professionals gather for 30 minutes – 1 hour to share progress, key information and safeguarding issues. This ensures everyone is working together around the child in a cohesive, joined up way that will minimise lost information and gaps in knowledge.
These meetings do not have to be long, but rather quick check-in updates. The frequency of these meetings can be determined by the parties involved
I use this approach in everyday situations now with everyone that I meet. Honestly, it was the best training – I love it! It has helped in work and home life as well.
Foster Carer