At FCA Scotland, we’re dedicated to keeping The Promise to ensure children and young people in care grow up loved, safe and respected. To achieve this, we need to recognise how their experiences affect their lives and take steps to provide the individualised care they need.
Understanding trauma and its impact is the first step to making a real difference in the lives of foster children, but where do you start?
That’s where therapeutic foster care comes in. Join us as we explore why understanding childhood trauma matters, what therapeutic foster care means, and how we’ll help you apply it day-to-day on your fostering journey.
Why is it important to understand trauma?
Whether a child enters care due to abuse, neglect, or something else, even just the process of moving into care leaves an imprint on their lives. This affects their entire well-being, from their emotions and behaviour to their mental health and relationships.
To help these children move forward and heal from their trauma, they need foster carers who know how to look beyond their behaviour and see the world through their eyes. That’s why at FCA Scotland, we train and support you to foster therapeutically, using approaches that always take children’s trauma into account.
But what does this really mean? Let’s take a closer look.
What is therapeutic foster care?
Whether you foster siblings, children with complex needs, or teenagers, every child’s experiences of the world are different, but therapeutic foster care can help, and here’s how.
Building a trusting relationship
One of the key principles of therapeutic foster care is building a trusting relationship with your foster child.
Many children and young people in care have been let down by those who were supposed to keep them safe and love them unconditionally. This can have a huge impact on their self-esteem, mental health, and ability to trust that others have their best interests at heart.
As a therapeutic foster carer with FCA Scotland, we’ll help you connect with your foster child and form a bond that supports their sense of safety and stability within your home.
Over time, you’ll show your foster child that you accept them for who they are and that trusting relationships do exist, which will support them in forming healthy connections now and in the future.
Understanding trauma responses
When children and young people experience prolonged abuse or neglect, their bodies and brains adapt to help them survive what’s happening.
For example, if a child is hurt every time they cry or express their needs, they may learn that it’s safer to keep their thoughts and feelings to themselves. They might also become hypervigilant, which heightens their senses, helping them quickly scan their environment for danger.
When children move into care, these trauma responses don’t simply switch off, which means they may behave in ways that are difficult to understand if you aren’t trauma-informed. For instance, being told off by a teacher might trigger their fight-or-flight response, which means they may argue back, run away from the situation, or not respond at all.
At FCA Scotland, our foster care training helps you support children in healing from their experiences and building new, healthy ways of coping with their thoughts and emotions, now that they’re in the safety of your home.
We’ll teach you how to look beyond their behaviour to understand what triggers their responses. And with your consistent support, love and care, they’ll learn that these behaviours aren’t needed in the same way anymore.
Collaborating with the wider team
Therapeutic fostering is not something you do alone; it’s a team effort and requires the input of experienced professionals who understand what children living with trauma really need.
That’s why, at FCA Scotland, we’ve developed our Team Parenting model, which means you’ll collaborate with a network of childcare experts to look after every area of a child’s well-being. From therapists and education leads to social workers and a participation service, our team approach helps children recover from their experiences and achieve the best possible outcomes.
Really listening to children’s voices
Foster children have had little control over their lives, from the experiences that led them into care to having no choice but to share a home with strangers.
Everyone wants to feel effective, like what they have to say matters, which is why at FCA Scotland, we listen to our children and encourage them to contribute to discussions about how we can improve our services.
We also involve young people in staff interviews and our preparatory fostering training programme, consult them about activities and ask them to contribute to revisions of some of our key documents, such as the Young Person’s Guide and Statement of Purpose.
Supporting foster families
Caring for children and young people living with trauma is incredibly rewarding, as you take steps to help them heal, achieve remarkable things, and build a brighter future. However, the role can also be demanding and challenging at times.
That’s why therapeutic foster care doesn’t just take care of foster children; it takes care of their foster families too.
When you join FCA Scotland, whether you’re a long-term, short-term or emergency foster carer, you’ll receive wrap-around support, which includes:
- Your very own supervising social worker who’ll offer regular supervision and guidance on your fostering journey.
- Help from one of our carer buddies who are experienced foster carers, while you find your feet.
- Joint therapy consultations where you and your foster children can explore and express difficult thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, helping you build a better understanding of each other.
- 24/7 helpline and accessible local support.
- Regular support groups and meet-ups, which provide a safe space for you to share your experiences with other foster carers.
- Year-round activities and events for your whole family to enjoy, helping you connect with like-minded people and build a wider network of support.
- Access to news, resources and discounts on our foster carer rewards platform.
- Free membership to FosterTalk, an independent organisation that represents all fostering professionals.
Start your fostering journey today
If you’re thinking about becoming a foster carer and want to learn more about how FCA Scotland supports children living with trauma, we’d love to hear from you.
Call us on 0141 646 4805 or submit your details via our online form. Our knowledgeable team will answer your questions and chat about getting started on your fostering journey, including the assessment process, support, training, and fostering allowances.
