Fiona McFarlane

Director for Scotland

This week marks the start of Foster Care Fortnight, The Fostering Network’s annual moment to raise awareness of foster care. This year they’re asking us all to celebrate the power of relationships to transform the lives of children and young people in foster care.

The importance of strong relationships

We know strong relationships between a child and carer are vital, no more so than when they have faced trauma and adversity early in their life. As renowned psychiatrist Dr Bruce Perry has said: “Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.”

This was reflected in the conclusions of Scotland’s Independent Care Review, the Promise, which stated that foster carers “…primary purpose is to develop nurturing, patient, kind and compassionate, trusting and respectful relationships”.

With that in mind, we’re delighted to mark Foster Care Fortnight and continue to support foster carers through our work. Not only do we value the contribution of foster carers, but relationships are already at the heart of our efforts to ensure no child faces mental health alone.

Building relationships is one of the key principles of our work with children and young people. We ensure there is a trusting relationship between the child and their Place2Be counsellor, and supporting positive relationships between the child, their teacher, and their family.

Our Parenting Course for foster carers

It was this understanding that led us to work in partnership with The Fostering Network over the last few years to adapt our Parenting Smart Online course to the specific needs of foster carers and, thanks to STV Children’s Appeal funding, deliver it to carers across Scotland.

Our Parenting Smart - Online Course was developed in partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It's based on tried and tested techniques and experiences from supporting children, young people, and their families. Designed to support carers of primary-age children, the course gives parents and carers extra tools to help strengthen their relationship with their children.

The Promise to care-experienced children and young people stated: “Scotland must better support its foster carers to be the best parents. Foster carers must feel valued, cared for and supported to care.” In response, we recognised that foster carers could benefit from targeted support to develop their parenting skills, delivered in an easily accessible and flexible way.

Working with The Fostering Network and individual foster carers, we evolved our existing course so that it met the needs of foster carers. This collaboration helped us to get the tone right, to better understand foster carers' previous experience of training, and highlight the importance of creating opportunities for foster carers to connect with peers throughout the training.

The impact of our Parenting Course for foster carers

Across two pilot cohorts, 252 foster carers in Scotland have participated in our Parenting Smart – Online Course. The course had a high completion rate compared to similar parenting programmes, with 62.5% of participants in the second cohort completing all six of the core modules.

The course was well received too. The proportion of participants who said that they understood how to support their child’s behaviour in most situations increased from 79% to 95.1%. Overall, 95% said they’d recommend the course to a friend, with one saying that their experience of the programme was “All just very positive. I think anyone dealing with children, not just foster children even their own children, would benefit from this course.”

Following the delivery of the pilot cohorts, we want to expand the reach of Parenting Smart, working with government, local authorities, and fostering agencies to build the capacity of foster carers across the UK. The outcomes of the pilot emphasise the need for all foster carers to receive training and support to develop positive relationships with the children and young people in their care.

Not only will it support their own relationships with the children, but it can help ensure foster carers are confident in providing support to birth families, facilitating family time, or strengthening transitions. There’s a role here too for reflective practice, particularly group reflective practice that will allow foster carers to connect and learn from their peers.

We know ‘relationships are the agents of change’ - we see it every day in our work - so it is necessary for all of us to do everything we can to ensure each child has strong, trusting, loving relationships with their carers. Doing so brings us one step closer to achieving our own mission: that no child faces mental health alone.

Further support for parents and carers

Parents can get free practical tips to support children’s wellbeing and behaviour on our Parenting Smart site.

Look at our Parenting Smart articles, videos and resources

Local authorities and community organisations wishing to commission Parenting Smart for parents and carers they support can find out more on our website.

Learn about our Parenting Smart Online Course for local authorities