Session 19/21

Evaluating your development

In this session, we ask you to sum up the competences you have developed during the training of your foster care. Perhaps you have found new values in your work. Perhaps you think differently about what is important in childcare. Perhaps you have reorganized the way you relate with the child and with your social network as foster parents. Perhaps you did not reach all the goals you set in the beginning, but you might easily have found a lot of fine ways to provide quality care – some of your ideas are probably much better than anything the program could suggest.

When you have finished this session, you will also have a valid description of your competences and experience as a foster parent. This you can present to authorities if you wish to start a new foster care relation. If you have a supervisor, an instructor or cooperate with a social worker, please invite this person for the reflection and discussion. If not, you can discuss with your spouse. There may also be other important persons you wish to invite: a school teacher, a grandparent, etc.

First, you should talk about the child’s development, and then about the competences that your work and the training have given you for professional foster care work in general. To support your reflections on the questions asked in this session you can use this word document “REFLECTION FORM” or look at the questions here and write them down on paper. The questions are elaborated on the next page.