Training Review

Supporting Children in Public Care in Schools: A Resource for Trainers of Teachers, Carers and Social Workers
John Holland and Catherine Randerson, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN 1843103257, £35

STAR RATING: 4/5






If you’re looking for a compact, off-the-peg training pack suitable for the main players in supporting the education of looked-after children, this is it, writes Simon Colbeck.

One slim volume contains pages for copying as handouts and OHP transparencies as well as guidance on presenting the material in 17 concise sections. These could be delivered in a single day.

Particularly helpful is the way the sections encourage participants to develop each other’s and their own roles   on the shared aims deriving from the title.

As well as a jargon-busting section, concepts such as corporate parenting, the designated teacher and the impact of attachment, change and loss in the lives of looked-after children are introduced engagingly. 

Since the training methods are well short of rocket science, the book would be as useful to an enthusiastic practitioner as a specialist trainer. If getting teachers, social workers and carers into the same room at the same time proves too difficult the material could also be adapted for separate groups. It should be well used.

Simon Colbeck is a fostering social worker and lecturer in childhood studies