Foster Carers' Perceptions of the Impact of Trauma-informed Training and Consultation on their Relationships with Children and Young People in their Care

Abstract

For many years, research has sought to understand the needs and outcomes of children and young people in care. This has often been done by evaluating the outcomes of interventions, which mainly focused on measurable behavioural aspects of the child. In attempts to explore the experiences and complexities of looking after care-experienced children, more recent research has also involved the views of those who care for them, including registered foster carers and residential care home staff. However, studies which have explored the use of trauma-informed approaches have often varied in the robustness of their methodologies, which indicates that more research in this area is warranted (Lotty et al., 2021a). The current study qualitatively explored how foster carers who accessed trauma-informed training and psychological consultation felt these experiences impacted their day-to-day parenting, connection and relationship with the children in their care as well as the impact on the foster carers’ confidence and self-reflection. This project aimed to explore these relational psychological processes to understand the foster carers’ experience beyond the focus on outcomes. A sample of 11 foster carers engaged in semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was adopted to interpret the data, which was conducted flexibly following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) six-step data engagement process. Three themes, with respective subthemes, emerged. The first main theme, relational and emotional challenges, reflects the complexities surrounding the role of a foster carer, outlined further in the subthemes: ‘an emotional experience of being a foster carer’, ‘navigating relationships around the foster child’ and ‘navigating complex systems’. These challenging experiences relating to the roles of foster carers highlight the value of psychological support, which is reflected in the second main theme, psychological training and consultation in a relational context. This theme described the knowledge
foster carers gained from such support, captured in corresponding subthemes ‘understanding trauma and attachment’, ‘understanding self-regulation and co- regulation’ and ‘facilitating nested mentalisation’. Participants felt supported within the psychologically safe and relational space of trauma-informed training and consultation. Lastly, the third main theme therapeutic parenting demonstrated how participants felt the therapeutic parenting skills impacted them. It is comprised of four subthemes: ‘day-to-day strategies’, ‘feeling confident and empowered’, ‘the value of connection’ and ‘building trust and safe relationships’. How these findings fit with existing theories, research and practice are discussed, together with the strengths and limitations of this study.