Why foster with Wiltshire Council

We offer round-the-clock support to our foster carers, ensuring that help and advice are always available whenever you need it. An on-call fostering social worker is available until midnight every day. From midnight to 9am you'll be able to telephone children's out of hours support. 

 You'll be assigned a dedicated supervising social worker who provides regular visits, support, and guidance tailored to your specific needs and circumstances.

You'll have access to our highly skilled therapists and will be supported by our team of fostering support workers. We work closely with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and placement therapists to provide high-quality training, development, and therapeutic support for foster carers. Placement therapists offer one-to-one consultations and group-based sessions, focusing on strengthening the stability of relationships between children, their fostering families, and their wider support network.

At Wiltshire Council, we have a dedicated Training and Development Coordinator who creates informative and engaging training programmes to support our foster carers. These include interactive and accessible sessions covering a wide range of topics, such as first aid, specialist therapeutic courses, and online safety training. Delivered by specialist trainers, these programmes aim to help children feel safe while providing foster carers with the most up-to-date information and guidance.

We train foster carers in the PACE approach (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy) to help children feel safe and build trust. Our specialist trainers provide tailored courses and consultations to help carers build strong, trusting relationships with the children they care for. These sessions also offer foster carers a valuable opportunity to seek advice, reflect, and gain guidance in their role.

We recognise that fostering is a professional role. Therefore, in addition to our comprehensive training package, we provide our foster carers with continuous professional development opportunities and workshops, enabling them to tailor their learning to their own needs and those of the children in their care. These opportunities also include access to nationally recognised Diplomas in Foster Care.