Psychology Service

As an agency which prides itself on ‘Putting Children’s Futures First,’ we are always seeking ways to improve and strengthen the support package we provide to our foster cares in order to meet the needs of the children and young people in their care. 

To this end, in 2018 we entered discussion with a clinical psychologist based in the North East with regards to how we could utilise his knowledge, skills and experience to support foster carers and staff with the fostering task. His work is underpinned by attachment and resilience theories which fits with the therapeutic parenting model used by Team Fostering, The Secure Base Model.

With him, we launched a psychological support service in June 2018. The aim of the service is to provide support and information to carers and staff that will enable them to be able to tailor care for individual children to provide an opportunity to recover from their early traumatic experiences. 

The psychologist we have collaborated with continues to be available in four of the Team Fostering offices; North Tyneside, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and South Normanton; for one day each month. There are two elements to the service; workshops that are open to all carers and staff in the morning. followed by individual consultations in the afternoon. By adopting this model we hope to be able to reach as many carers as possible, both to enhance their understanding of the impact of trauma on children and how to help them recover from their experiences, but also to have the opportunity to talk in detail about particular issues.