The Irish Foster Care Association offers opportunities for learning and development to foster carers and fostering practitioners with the aim of building the knowledge and skills required to meet the needs of children in care with confidence.
We offer training and learning events tailored for the fostering community. These events, whether face-to-face or online, allow members of the fostering community to progress their ongoing learning and development and also to avail of the support that comes from meeting with peers and colleagues at such events.
The Irish Foster Care Association Annual National Conference brings together all those with an interest in foster care, including general and relative foster carers, care leavers, health and social care practitioners, academics, students, teachers, policy makers, those with an interest in foster care. Find out more about our conference.
Foster Journal is published twice a year. It aims to inform IFCA members and a wider readership of those with an involvement in foster care of current issues in foster care and of developments in policy, practice and research. It aims to be accessible to a broad range of readers. You can access the Journal here.
The Knowledge Bank is an online resource library where you can get easy access to information, watch videos, get links to podcasts and source research in the different areas of fostering. You can access the Knowledge Bank here…
We offer a wide range of information leaflets relevant to foster care. You can access all information leaflets here…
Surveys and research inform IFCA on key issues for foster care, foster carers and the children in their care that need to be addressed through our policies, campaigns and services. Our practice is underpinned by this strong evidence base. IFCA conducts, commissions and advises on research so that we can influence policy at a national level. You can access our research here.
For the latestest videos, podcasts and webinars on topics relating to foster care please click here…
Our learning model CARE is based on four core competencies for foster care:
Consistency
Accessibility
Responsiveness
Emotional connectedness.
These competencies form the bedrock of the understanding and skills set needed by foster carers and fostering practitioners for meeting the needs of the children you care for. they are firmly established in IFCA pre-approval training for new foster carers, Journey Through Fostering. From there, through a process on continuous learning, these core competencies, understanding and skills can be expanded, deepened and embedded into fostering practice.
