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it still runs yes but there are changes in legislation etc since 2008 and it'll be different to the adoption one (not hugely but still different) so yes, if you want to foster you'll have to do it again. its also a part of the vetting process so even if your lst course was more recent with a new assessment you'd probably have to redo the course.

No what I'm saying is we DID Skills to Foster but never fostered. At the time a couple came on one session that had done the whole course two years previously but not ended up fostering due to having a birth child in between. Is there any possibility do you think we could just do part of it?We would foster/concurrently adopt for the same LA we originally applied to to do fostering if that helps.It wasn't that exciting the first time round! (and we hadn't done the adoption prep course yet then either!)

I guess you would have to ask your sw dept. , if they would let you off, since you have already attended the classes.Only they can really answer as it is them that has to approve you. Maybe if they know you well enough they might oblige.. We adopted twice and had to attend adoption classes twice, but second time round the newbies looked to us for advice and anecdotes !

2008 was 5 years ago, you are more than likely going to have to do the whole thing again for the reasons I said in previous post, new legislation, changes to the course and part of the vetting process. there are very likely to be new sw's on the fostering team who don't know you so it'll still be part of the vetting process. I had to redo it when I had a break from fostering for 5 years. but it never hurts to ask the question of the fostering team manager.

Yes it never hurts to ask!The whole approval process for either fostering or adoption does seem designed to assume everyone has very short memories and is very slow on the uptake and doesn't know anything at all before they start I have to say - I can't quite think of the right phrase, and this is a bit strong, but we found it mildly insulting to be asked to go to a course with almost exactly the same content, set up by the same organisation (BAAF) for adoption preparation when just over a year previously we'd done Skills to Foster. It was like they were suggesting we hadn't taken anything in and hadn't been paying attention the first time.In fact there's more in Skills to Foster than in the adoption course as you don't get the parts about moving children on, advocacy etc. We wouldn't have objected so much if the content had been different!

I know what you mean. I am a qualified teacher, portage home visitor, nurse (admittedly from 20 years ago) have child psychology at undergrad level and none of this, not one bit, am I able to use in my fostering. I still have to check for every single child who comes through how to wean them, how to do bottle feeds, I have to tell sw's when the child moves into their own bedroom etc, even been told by HV that squishy shouldn't still be having a night feed and I will have to get her to drop it, and having been told this I now have to do it even though its against my own parenting instincts. and more recently I have had experience of unqualified (in comparison to my qualifications in the area concerned) sw's personal opinions being worth more than my educated ones and that led to a very poor outcome (IMHO) for sb. but you want to foster you got to play the game.

I have just come across this thread. My only comment is this. In general terms---not directed at anyone, just because you have done a course, does that mean you can learn nothing new?In my LA we are encouraged to sttend several training courses each year. Now, I have been fostering 20+ years---so should I stop attending courses because I have done them all?Every single course is different, even if the material is almost the same, because of the variety of individuals, experiences, questions etc that the participants bring.And yes, legislation and Best Practice change, often within a year.Take what is offered, and make the most of it

Have to agree with imp that we can always learn something knew, if not from the content but the other participants.Plus you'll meet new fc who could be good support and you for themSuze x

All I can say is that it takes a pretty special person to foster, stay calm when they come with their crappy decisions, saying the right things at the right time, having to deal with birth parents, living under the threat of false allegations, having to deal with sw's who suffer from god syndrome, endless medical appointments, therapies, never be sure or the child is still in your house 2 weeks later, not be able to forget to lock the bathroom when taking a bath, living by their rules in your own house, etc, etc.I take my head off to all of you. II The financial rewards must be great.....

If only Pluto, If only !!!!!

This is in no way intended to offend. Or be harsh. But in life if there is anything you really want to do you jump through all hoops to do it. No matter how boring, dull or repetitive it is. Your goal is the end product. And if you're passionate about it enough those hoops won't matter in the grand scheme of things. But as others have said above hoops come with the silver linings of meeting new people. Learning something new through others experiences. Keeping up to date with legislation. Offer advice and support. And I'm sure a whole heap more. :-)Again not intended to offend or come across harsh!

We would have loved to have learned something new on the BAAF adoption prep course. But we didn't! As I say the content was more or less identical (and it really seems to be planned that way - which does make sense if you want your adopters and FCs to have similar skills), except it was missing the parts about moving on. If we'd been offered the choice of going on different training courses that would have been fabulous - but that's all we were offered.Likewise yes it's a good idea to meet new people who are also taking the training course, but despite circulating email addresses, me emailing updates 2 or 3 times to everyone, and also requesting as friends on FB those I could find, I have not had a peep out of anyone else who was on our course either while we were doing home study or after matching (I did not bother any more after that).I bump into one couple from the FC course every so often as they are local (the adoption prep course wasn't local and even if we'd done it with our LA it would have been less local), but we were told on the FC course we'd be paired up with experienced FC and would have get togethers locally/a network locally. So we could see either those from our previous FC course, or newly trained FCs, through that without the need to do the whole course.It would save our LA a lot of money too!If it's a choice of paying for us to go on a course that's a repeat of something we've done twice before, or paying for us to go on something new, I know which one makes sense to us.