The Top 5 Qualities of a TLC Foster Carer!

Therapeutically Led Care (TLC) fostering provides all the benefits of regular foster care, and additional therapy for young people, who have suffered abuse, trauma, and poor attachment.

By caring for young people through our TLC package, you will be having a positive impact on their lives and your own whilst receiving an enhanced allowance, additional and ongoing support, extensive training and more.

“What I most need can be hardest for me to tolerate - that is why I need my carers to be patient and stay connected with me even when I push them away. Show me you can help” - TLC Young Person

Our top 5 qualities of a TLC Foster Carer

1. Stickability

   One of the biggest qualities of a TLC foster carer is the ability to stick with the young person through all the highs and the tough bits. Children in care are often used to not having a positive role model in their lives or someone who shows them unconditional positive regard. Showing the commitment to joining a young person’s journey and staying with them throughout, will provide them with the foundations they need to grow in a safe, secure environment. With the enhanced support you receive with Blue Sky Fostering, you’ll never foster alone.

2. Resilience

   Resilience is an important quality for a TLC foster carer as young people need carers with resilience in abundance! If you can demonstrate that you can ‘bounce back’ from difficulties and rejection, you will begin to show your young person that it is possible for them to build resilience too. Sometimes young people ‘reject before they are rejected’ and so combining stickability with resilience will enable you to show your young person they are loved, safe and cared for. With the TLC package from Blue Sky, you will receive enhanced respite to ensure you take care of yourself too, by taking a break and recharging your batteries.

3. Positivity

   Spotting the positives and praising the young person when they happen is an important part of being a foster carer and especially so on the TLC programme. Positivity enables the young person to believe in themselves and is an important step in developing self-esteem. Children/young people often hear what adults don’t want them to do, but not so much what adults do want them to do. Our ethos is to ‘catch them being good’ and notice the small things, when you see something positive, let them know!

4. PACEfulness

   PACE is an approach which forms part of the TLC programme and is vital to allowing a young person to open up emotionally. PACE stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy. It means creating an atmosphere of active enjoyment with the young person and accepting the young person for who they are, being non-judgemental and empathetic in their emotional state and experiencing it with them. Blue Sky Fostering offers extensive TLC training alongside the standard training so you will be well equipped to use this method, as well as a team around you to confide in.

5. Creativity

   Lastly, you need to be open and ready to parent in a creative way. The young person will not usually respond to conventional behavioural techniques, so thinking outside the box is important for coming up with different solutions to help the young person. Don’t worry - you will be guided by the team around you and your young person every step of the way and you’ll always be able to talk to someone. You will also be invited to TLC support groups so you can talk to other Foster Carers who will understand you, as well as having a social worker on the end of the phone, 24/7 every day of the year.

“If anyone is considering becoming a TLC carer with Blue Sky, I would say ‘go for it’! It can be challenging, there’s no denying that, but the support of the team is fantastic.” — Debbie, TLC Foster Carer

Do you have the qualities to become a TLC Foster Carer? Enquire now, it could change your life and the lives of young people for the better.