TACT is proud to be part of a group of six charities tasked with providing therapeutic training to carers looking after children in foster care and staying in residential homes across Wales. This project, the first of its kind, will provide Fostering Changes a leading therapeutic training programme to 1500 carers.
The Confidence in Care consortium includes six charities and an academic partner who have been awarded £4.75 million from the Big Lottery Fund to deliver the training over five years. The training aims to improve placement stability by creating better interaction and attachment levels between carers and children.
Confidence in Care will transform outcomes for looked after children in Wales over the next five years and influence the way children’s social care is delivered in most settings across the country for many more years to come.
The programme will be delivered in partnership with Fostering Network Wales, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The British Association for Adoption and Fostering, TACT (The Adolescent and Children’s Trust), and The Children’s Social Research and Development Centre at Cardiff University (CASCADE), and we will be working closely with Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru and Children in Wales.
Dr Emily Warren, director of The Fostering Network Wales, on behalf of the Confidence in Care consortium, said: “This is the biggest project of its kind ever to have been undertaken in Wales. We will be working in all 22 local authority areas, with 1500 foster carers being engaged and supported through the delivery of 125 Fostering Changes training courses and 125 support groups.
“As a group of organisations delivering this work, we will be working towards developing a more positive outlook in young people towards their education and future career goals, increasing their resilience and life skills, and then using robust learning and evaluation evidence to influence future policy development in Wales.
“The scale of this programme of work really reflects the ambition of the sector as a whole to improve the lives of the children and young people in care in Wales.”
