Foster Care Training and Repeat Applications: Do I Need Skills to Foster Training If I Have Fostered Before?
At Family Fostering Partners, our fostering community has always been family led. It genuinely feels like being part of one extended family, and that shapes everything we do. We place children who are fostered and their carers at the heart of every decision, every conversation, and every process.
Yes—most foster carers who apply again are still asked to complete Skills to Foster. It’s the standard pre‑approval training used to align everyone with current safeguarding expectations, updated guidance, and best practice. Your previous experience is valued, but the training ensures your framework is current before a new placement.
One of the clearest ways this shows is through the time, care, and investment we put into our training and resources. Every placement matters, to a child, to the carers providing that care, and to the wider local community. Because of that, we believe it is essential that every situation is supported by the same strong foundations. That means consistent training, the right level of ongoing support, and a clear focus on giving everyone involved the best possible chance of a positive outcome. This is exactly where our foster care training model, Skills to Foster, plays such an important role.
Explaining Skills to Foster as Foster Care Training
Skills to Foster is the foundation of foster care training in England. It is designed to prepare people for the realities of fostering, offering practical guidance, shared learning, and space for reflection before welcoming a child who is fostered into your home.
As foster care training, Skills to Foster focuses on understanding the role of a foster parent, why children need care, and how early experiences can shape behaviour, emotions, and relationships. It also covers safeguarding responsibilities, working with link workers and other professionals, and creating a stable, nurturing environment for a child.
For people who have fostered before, this foster care training is not about starting again or questioning previous experience. Instead, it ensures everyone is working from the same up-to-date framework. Guidance, legislation, and best practice evolve over time, and Skills to Foster helps align training with current expectations while recognising the experience carers already bring.
Most importantly, foster care training through Skills to Foster is supportive rather than evaluative. It is a chance to refresh knowledge, share lived experience, and feel confident that you are fully prepared and supported to provide the best possible care for a child and the family around them.
Skills to Foster isn’t a test to “catch you out.” For returning carers it’s a refresher and alignment tool: what’s changed in guidance, what current agencies expect, and how to set up a stable, trauma-aware home environment using today’s standards.
Where Do Skills to Foster Appear in the Application and Do You Need it if You’ve Fostered Before?
Skills to Foster comes after the initial call, home assessment visit, and fostering application. It forms part of the initial foster care training stage, taking place before approval and before a child who is fostered is welcomed into your home. You can read more about this on our ‘how to become a foster parent page’.
Even if you have fostered before, Skills to Foster is still required. This is not about repeating the past or overlooking previous experience. It ensures that all carers complete the same core foster care training and are working within the same current framework. Guidance, legislation, and best practice change over time, and completing Skills to Foster helps align everyone with up-to-date expectations.
For returning foster parents, the training recognises experience and builds on it. Discussions are shaped by real-life insight, allowing space to reflect on past placements, refresh understanding, and approach fostering with confidence moving forward.
Importantly, Skills to Foster is only the beginning. With Family Fostering Partners, training and support continue throughout your time as a foster parent. Ongoing learning, guidance from link workers, and access to resources remain in place long after approval, ensuring carers and a child are supported every step of the way.
How Long This Foster Care Training Takes for Returning Foster Parents
Skills to Foster is part of the pre-approval foster care training that everyone needs to complete during the assessment process, no matter whether you’re new to fostering or have fostered before.
Most agencies and local authorities deliver this training as a block of sessions spread over two to three days (sometimes organised as 3 full days, or equivalently spread over evenings or weekends to make it easier to attend).
Because Skills to Foster is woven into the wider approval process, the exact total time from application to training completion varies by individual circumstances. Typically the whole training and assessment phase, including Skills to Foster, fits within the broader assessment timeline of around 3–6 months for most applicants.
For returning foster parents, the course duration itself doesn’t usually shorten, because the purpose is to ensure everyone’s training is current and aligned with today’s best practice. However, your own experience is recognised and discussed as part of the learning, rather than the process being treated as if you are completely new to fostering.
Time expectations: Skills to Foster is commonly delivered over 2–3 days (or equivalent evenings/weekends). Even for returning carers, it usually isn’t shortened because the aim is consistency and up-to-date practice—your experience changes the discussion, not the duration.
How Previous Fostering Experience is Taken into Account
If you have fostered before, your experience is fully recognised and taken into account throughout the application and foster care training process. It is not overlooked or treated as if you are starting from the beginning.
This includes the type of fostering you have done previously, whether that is short-term, long-term, respite, or another arrangement, and whether this is the same type of fostering you would like to return to. The ages of the children you have supported are also considered, alongside the specific needs and requirements involved in those placements.
Assessors will also look at the level of care and responsibility you have taken on before, the challenges you faced, and how you responded to them. This might include managing behaviour, supporting emotional needs, working with professionals, or adapting to changes within a placement. These experiences help shape discussions and ensure any future placements are matched appropriately.
During Skills to Foster foster care training, returning carers are encouraged to bring this lived experience into group discussions. Rather than repeating information for the sake of it, the training builds on what you already know, offering space to reflect, refresh understanding, and approach fostering with confidence using current guidance and best practice.
By taking previous experience into account in this way, the process remains both consistent and personal, ensuring carers feel respected while a child who is fostered receives the right level of support from the very start.
Do All Local Authorities and Agencies Handle Repeat Applications the Same Way?
Agencies don’t all handle repeat applications identically. The core training expectation is broadly consistent, but how your past experience is weighed can vary based on how recently you fostered, what type of placements you did, and the agency’s approach to assessment conversations.
No, local authorities and fostering agencies do not all handle repeat applications in exactly the same way. While the overall framework for fostering in England is consistent, the way previous experience is reviewed, and how the process is delivered, can vary between organisations.
What remains the same is the requirement to complete core foster care training, including Skills to Foster, and to meet current safeguarding and assessment standards. This ensures that all carers are working within up-to-date guidance, regardless of where or when they have fostered before.
Where differences tend to appear is in how agencies recognise and apply previous experience. Some may place more emphasis on recent fostering history, the type of fostering previously undertaken, or the length of time since your last placement. Others may adapt conversations and assessments to focus more on reflection rather than explanation, particularly for carers with extensive experience.
Independent fostering agencies like Family Fostering Partners aim to take a more individual approach. Rather than following a one-size-fits-all process, time is taken to understand your background, what you have done before, and how that experience fits with the type of fostering you are looking to return to. This helps ensure the process feels proportionate, respectful, and supportive, while still meeting all regulatory requirements.
Talking It Through With an Agency Before You Apply
If you have fostered before, having a conversation before you apply can make a real difference. It gives you the chance to talk openly about your previous experience, the type of fostering you have done, what worked well, and what felt challenging. It also allows space to explore whether the same type of fostering still feels right for you now, or whether your circumstances have changed.
At Family Fostering Partners, these early conversations are about listening first. We take time to understand your background, your experience, and what you are looking for moving forward. From there, we can talk you through what the application and foster care training process would look like for you, including Skills to Foster, and answer any questions honestly and clearly.
If you are considering fostering again, or transferring agencies, reach out to Family Fostering Partners to talk it through. We are happy to answer questions, explain the process, and help you decide your next steps.
FAQ
Q: Do I have to repeat Skills to Foster if I have fostered before?
A: In most cases, yes. Agencies typically require Skills to Foster as the standard pre-approval training to ensure practice aligns with current safeguarding guidance and expectations.
Q: Can an agency exempt returning foster carers from Skills to Foster?
A: Some agencies may consider exemptions in limited situations, but most still ask returning carers to complete core training so everyone shares the same up-to-date framework.
Q: Where does Skills to Foster sit in the application process?
A: It usually happens after initial enquiries, visits and the formal application, and before approval—so training is completed before a child is placed.
Q: How long does Skills to Foster take?
A: Many providers deliver it over 2–3 days (or equivalent evenings/weekends). The wider assessment and training process often sits within a 3–6 month timeline, depending on circumstances.
Q: Will my previous fostering experience be taken into account?
A: Yes. Assessors consider the types of placements you’ve done, ages supported, challenges handled, and how you worked with professionals. Your lived experience also enriches training discussions.
Q: Do local authorities and independent agencies handle repeat applications the same way?
A: Not exactly. Standards are consistent, but processes vary in how they review prior experience and how conversations are tailored. Core safeguarding and training expectations are usually maintained.
Q: Why would I need training again if I already know how fostering works?
A: Guidance, legislation, and best practice change. Training ensures you are working with current expectations and helps refresh approaches to trauma, attachment, and safeguarding.
Q: What should I ask an agency before reapplying?
A: Ask how they treat prior experience, what training is required, expected timelines, the type of support offered (social worker, peer groups, out-of-hours), and what placements they can match you with.
