Bullying Awareness Training
Currently, it is a statutory requirement that foster carers have positive strategies for effectively supporting children when they encounter discrimination or bullying wherever it occurs. Unfortunately, the reality for a looked-after child is they are particularly vulnerable to bullying. Therefore, bullying awareness is a vital part of foster care that aims to ensure that looked-after children remain safe and happy.
Bullying is typically classed as someone using their power over someone else. This is usually in the form of name-calling and deliberate exclusion. This has serious negative impacts on the victim and their social development. Therefore, foster carers should put in place procedures to recognise, record and address instances of bullying. This course will highlight the various signs that a child is experiencing bullying, in person or over the internet. The training will cover cyberbullying in detail, including who could cyberbully and what foster carers can do in such cases.
Surveys show over 40% of children between 10-15 years old have admitted to being a victim of bullying at some point in their lives. This underscores the importance of bullying awareness training for foster carers. Participants will learn a variety of different ways that they can prevent their child from becoming a target, such as methods of ‘bully-proofing’ children. Furthermore, the course runs through how foster carers can contact the school to find out what policies they have in place already. Finally, it elaborates on how participants should react to bullying. This ranges from tailoring their physical reactions to the steps to take after finding out.
An experienced trainer will lead the course, guiding participants through the content. There is supported learning via group exercises and case studies. This 1-day course meets the requirements of the Training, Support and Development standards for Foster Care:
- Standard 3: 3.5a
- Standard 6: 6.1(a, b), 6.2(a, b, c), 6.3 (a, b, c, d, e), 6.4