Learning and Development Programme for Foster Carers, Kinship Carers and Adopters.

Strengthening Regulation at Home.

The Regulated Child offers a robust, continuous learning and development programme for Fostering and Adoption Teams who are keen to embed relational and trauma informed approaches in their everyday interactions with the children and young people they care for while strengthening regulation and resilience.

Understanding the impact of insecure attachments and developmental trauma is just the first part of the process.  For carers and adopters to really make a difference to the outcomes for their children, they need to understand how they can strengthen their child’s regulation and resilience to navigate daily demands.

We provide carers and adopters with specific self-regulation tools that are practical and easy to use during daily interactions with their child.  These tools are collaborative and conversational and ‘slot’ into everyday life at home.  The tools provide a framework to support the repair of situations that have been difficult as well as a framework to proactively plan for upcoming potential stressors.

Although training is crucial in developing skills and knowledge when supporting and caring for children impacted by developmental trauma, it is the access to ongoing quality support, that really makes a difference to Foster Carers, Kinship Carers and Adopters.

The Regulated Child offers reflective follow-up sessions, annual refreshers, one to one consultancy as well as group coaching sessions which support parents and carers to translate knowledge and information acquired, into their everyday interactions and routines at home.

Programme Structure

The training programme is tiered, consisting of Level 1 and Level 2.  For pace of delivery and to allow for reflection, each Level is delivered over two half days.

Each Level develops knowledge, understanding and skills as well as offering lots of opportunities for review, collaboration and discussion. 

4-6 weeks after the completion of each level, participants are invited to return for a follow-up session.  The aim is to allow participants the time and thinking space to consider how the information translates and fits with their child and home circumstances as well as giving them the opportunity to put some of the ideas into practice.

In addition to the training programme there are opportunities for ongoing support in the form of annual refreshers, 1 to 1 consultancy and group coaching.

  • This session will include:

    • Traditional approaches to ‘managing behaviour’ and their limitations

    • Using behaviour as signals to interpret our child’s unmet needs

    • Understanding behaviour developmentally

    • How insecure attachments and developmental trauma impact on brain development

    Duration: 3 hours

  • This session will include:

    • Reading our child's state of arousal

    • Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model. Regulate, Relate, Reason

    • Soothing distress and dysregulation through the senses

    • Creating a sensory diet to regulate our child’s vulnerable nervous system

    • Different survival states, what they look and feel like at home

    Duration: 3 hours

  • This allows participants the opportunity to implement suggestions at home and reflect on the impact.

    In these follow-up sessions, participants will have the opportunity to return with their experiences, successes or further challenges. We will explore home based scenarios, practical applications and proactive planning.

    This session will include:

    •  Reflection and sharing of experiences

    • Collaborative problem solving

    • Fine tuning interactions and responses

    • Case studies

    • Predicting and planning

    Duration: 3 hours

  • This session will include:

    • Exploring Secondary Trauma, what it looks and feels like

    • Balancing our body budget, tending to our own needs to enable us to tend to others’

    • Using attuned relationships as the basis of co-regulation

    • The importance of staying connected while being aware of our own emotional state

    • Using the PACE model to nurture fragile relationships and create a secure base

    Duration: 3 hours

  • This session will include:

    • Understanding the development of self-regulation from early years to adult hood

    • Recognising and predicting our child’s potential stressors and perceived threats

    • Using the ‘Reflective Self-Regulation Tool’ to repair and plan with our child

    • Using the ‘Predictive Self-Regulation Tool’ to predict and plan with our child

    •Strengthening self-regulation and resilience through proactive routines, predictable language, and safe relationships

    Duration: 3 hours

  • This allows participants the opportunity to implement suggestions at home and reflect on the impact.

    In these follow-up sessions, participants will have the opportunity to return with their experiences, successes or further challenges. We will explore home based scenarios, practical applications and proactive planning.

    This session will include:

    •  Reflection and sharing of experiences

    • Collaborative problem solving

    • Fine tuning interactions and responses

    • Case studies

    • Predicting and planning

    Duration: 3 hours

  • 12 months after completing Level 2 training.

    As home circumstances change and as children grow and develop there is a need for continued learning and development to ensure that approaches still meet the child's or young person’s needs and that parents and carers are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and skills.

    This session will recap the key themes of Level 1 and 2 while allowing participants the opportunity to reflect on their journey so far, what the current challenges and successes are and the key focus points moving forward with regards to development and regulation.  It provides participants with a ‘check in’ opportunity.

    The Annual Refresher takes place 12 months after the completion of Level 2 and can be revisited annually if required. 

    Duration: 3 hours

Book a free initial consultation today

Book a free consultation to discuss the learning and development needs of your staff, foster carers, kinship carers and adopters. Together we can ensure that the content and delivery supports families to thrive.

As well as our training programme, we can offer bespoke packages tailored to the individual needs of your organisation.

 

Ongoing support

Having the opportunity to participate in group training is great.  We leave feeling reconnect and empowered.  Unfortunately, caring for a child who requires additional support and co-regulation can drain our own resources very quicky.  Achieving the day-to-day expectations such as getting dressed, going to school, and self-care, which are routine for other families, require precision planning and skill.  This can be exhausting in the long term for adopters and cares.  The Regulated Child offers one to one consultancy and group coaching sessions to provide individualised, ongoing support. 

Individual Consultations

At certain times, some parents and carers may need more intensive, individualised support.  Consultation sessions are available to discuss specific concerns or difficulties, to support parents and carers to make sense of what is going on for their child by looking through a trauma informed lens.  This allows them the time and space to reflect and consider supports that they could put in place at home that would make a difference for them and their child.  Supporting the development of healthy relationships and proactive routines.

Group Coaching

Group coaching sessions offer a similar experience to individual consultations but in a collaborative forum.  It offers parents and carers the opportunity to share, reflect and learn from each other.  These sessions are facilitated by a consultant who will ensure that discussions are solution focused, relate to trauma informed practices and that parents and carers have clear, workable actions to take back into their home.  

There are 4 - 6 group coaching sessions in a block. Each session lasts 1.5 hours.

1 to 1 Coaching for Foster Carers and Adoptive Parents.

We also provide independent support to foster carers and adopters.

If you are a foster carer or adoptive parent who is struggling to make sense of your child’s reactions and responses and would like to better understand the impact of insecure attachments and developmental trauma, our 1 to 1 coaching service is here to help you.

We will listen to your story and provide you with a safe, compassionate and confidential space to begin to make sense of what is going on beneath your child’s behaviour and what you can do to reduce the stressors and support development. The sessions also offer you an opportunity to stop, think, reflect and provide you with the much needed space and time to consider your own needs.

Sessions are delivered via Zoom but can be face to face depending on location.

Book in for your free initial consultation to discover how we can help.

Testimonials

  • ‘‘Nicola McAllister is highly skilled and a great communicator. I would happily join any of her training courses in the future.’

  • ‘Thank you so much for providing this wonderful training opportunity. I thoroughly enjoyed the webinar and thought it was really interesting and informative and really made me reflect on my practice and consider different language and strategies that can be used to support the children I work with. Thank you.’

  • ‘I thought Nicola was excellent because her dedication and integrity to children shone through. Thank you, Nicola.’

  • ‘The trainer was amazing. There was a lovely balance of listening and chatting. Well done as training on-line is not easy. I loved it. Thank you.’

  • ‘Nicola was an absolutely inspiring talker with lots of knowledge!’

  • ‘I work with children with additional support needs and this approach has helped me understand their needs better and given me the tools to help children regulate their stress responses.’

  • ‘Fascinating insight into the reasons behind behaviours in more detail and better explained than I have had access to so far. Having an improved understanding of behaviour and my role and behaviour will really help when working with young people who suffer from trauma/ACE.’

  • ‘I work as an early years practitioner and feel this course has helped me to understand children’s behaviours better, I’m more aware of why children may not be able to carry out tasks asked of them and why they me demonstrate distressed behaviours. I also feel I have a better understanding of how to try and co regulate with the children.’

  • ‘The brain is a minefield and never ending learning. Nicola explained everything in simple terms and how many things we may never think of, as adults, can have an impact/effect on the child and their behaviour.’

  • ‘This was very interesting and informative training that proved very thought provoking. So glad to have been able to participate.’

  • ‘I have many years experience supporting the mental health of YP within education, community and hospital settings. This course was so informative and was presented in a professional and empathetic manner. Fantastic.’

  • ‘Thoroughly enjoyed this training, it has developed my knowledge further around this area which is what I have been looking for. Nicola is a fantastic presenter.’