CWDC moves to improve fostering workbooks

Online guidance and training resources were launched today to help social workers implement the controversial CWDC fostering workbooks.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and the Fostering Network have developed the guidance to reduce paperwork and improve the support for foster carers and their supervisors.

It replaces the existing guidance for social workers implementing the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care – often referred to as the CWDC workbooks for foster carers.

The workbooks were heavily criticised on Community Care’s online forum, Carespace, as difficult to understand and a waste of time for more experienced and highly qualified foster carers.

Ann Harrison, national manager for the CWDC, said the new guidance is “just what supervising social workers have been asking us for”.

She added: “It addresses the uncertainty some have had when supporting foster carers to complete the Training, Support and Development Standards. We found there was a tendency to over-complicate the evidence needed to complete the workbooks, so we have now simplified the process and highlighted how straightforward they can be when embedded in day-to-day work.”

Hazel Halle, director of services at the Fostering Network, said the training materials “should help foster carers feel more confident and better able to meet the needs of the young people and children they care for”.

The guidance and training resources are available free online.

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