Competency and Skills Based Training
Competency and Skills Based Training
Working with children in care requires more than just meeting the necessary requirements. It calls for a blend of personal and professional qualities. While the specifics may vary depending on your local authority or organisation, you have the power to develop the critical competencies needed to make a difference in the lives of those in need.
The goal of our training is to equip individuals with the necessary skills for working with children and families in real-world situations. Through implementing our competency and skills based training children’s services can ensure that professionals have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the complex needs of children in care, ultimately leading to more positive outcomes.
Click on the links in each section below for details of the courses
Childcare
Includes providing a safe and nurturing environment, meeting children’s physical and emotional needs, and promoting their overall well-being.
Communication
Excellent communication skills are essential for building rapport with children, families, and professionals. You should be able to listen actively, express yourself clearly, and navigate sensitive conversations.
Observation, Record-Keeping and Assessment
Maintaining accurate and detailed records of children’s progress, communication, and incidents is essential for continuity of care and legal purposes.
Safeguarding
Observing children’s behaviour, identifying their needs and assessing potential risks is essential to ensure their safety and well-being. Prevention of abuse and neglect is crucial, which involves identifying and addressing risks that could lead to harm, such as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Promoting well-being is equally important, which includes creating safe and supportive environments where young people can thrive.
Teamwork
Foster carers and support workers collaborate with a team of professionals, including social workers, teachers, and therapists. Effective teamwork is essential for providing coordinated care and achieving the best outcomes for children.
Cultural competence
Understanding and respecting diverse cultures, backgrounds, and experiences is crucial for building trust and providing culturally appropriate care.
Trauma and special educational needs awareness
A large number of children in care have gone through traumatic experiences, which may have also led to unidentified educational needs. Therefore, it is crucial to have an understanding of the impact of trauma on children, and how to provide them with effective support.
- Aces, Drugs, and Self-harm
- Hypervigilance, Dissociation and ADHD and Conduct Disorders
- Complex Developmental Trauma and Complex PTSD
- Neonatal Absence Syndrome & Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- Supporting Children across the Autistic Spectrum, including Anxiety and Sexuality
- Children who have been Sexually Abused/Sexualised Behaviours
Conflict resolution
Foster carers and support workers will often need to manage challenging situations and resolve conflicts constructively.
Resilience and self-care
Caring for children that have experienced trauma can be emotionally demanding. It’s important to have coping mechanisms and prioritise your well-being to ensure you can effectively care for others.
"Trying to implement trauma-specific clinical practices before implementing trauma-informed organisational culture change is like throwing seeds on dry land".
Far too often, practitioners receive incisive training, but it needs to be fully supported by the organisation to be transferred into daily practice.
In a groundbreaking report by the Early Intervention Foundation called “Trauma-informed Care Understanding the Use of Trauma-informed Approaches Within Children’s Social Care 2022” evidence through extensive interviews shows that practitioners have great enthusiasm for these principles; however, their application needs more consistency.Â
Principles underpinning trauma-informed approaches
- Seeing through a trauma-informed lens means that there is an understanding and acknowledgement of the links between trauma and mental health.
- Adopting a broad definition of trauma beyond PTSD, including recognising social trauma and the intersectionality of multiple traumas.
- Making trauma enquiries sensitively and with knowledge about how to respond.
- Refer people to evidence-based, trauma-specific support where indicated.
- Addressing vicarious trauma and re-traumatisation.
- Prioritising trustworthiness and transparency in communications, such as limiting the professionals a person must repeat their traumatic history to.
- Moving towards collaborative relationships and away from helper roles based on trust, collaboration, respect and hope.
- Adopting strengths-based approaches that reframe symptoms as coping adaptations, such as dissociation as an adaptive strategy to escape unbearable experiences.
- Prioritising emotional and physical safety for service users and providers.
- Working in partnership with trauma survivors, for example, to design, deliver and evaluate services.
At Social Care Training Solutions, all our training is mapped to Trauma-Informed Care.
Our goal is to help the young person journey proficiently through the care system and eventually successfully transition to post-trauma flourishing!
