The Team Parenting™ Approach

The Team Parenting™ approach is based on the principle of:

’Making a positive and lasting difference’.

A holistic approach to fostering, Team Parenting™ draws together a wide range of qualified professionals to support a foster care placement and provide the highest quality fostering training to meet the needs of the foster parent and the child.

As part of Fostering First International, a global brand encompassing foster care agencies across four continents, Key Assets Fostering bases its foster care on the success of the Team Parenting™ approach worldwide, and its effectiveness in positively impacting both trauma and attachment behaviours and the provision of quality care in a family setting.

The role of the foster family

The foster family is central to the process of Team Parenting™, with the foster parents acting as ‘agents of change’. This means that the foster parent has the extended responsibility to deliver the therapeutic foster care directly to the child or youth.

We make it clear that Team Parenting™ support services are not intended to replace the responsibilities of the foster parent; instead they extend and enhance them.

The Team Parenting™ team

The Team Parenting™ team will consist of a variety of different support service workers:

  • Social Workers will have frequent visits and regular telephone contact with you as your closest support professional.
  • Child and Youth Counsellors provide direct support to young people within the context of their daily lives. Activities and intervention could occur in the foster home, school, or community. They are highly experienced professionals provided for every child placed with a Key Assets foster parent. We believe that dedicated support is vital to the success of the service we provide to our foster parents, as well as to our children and young people.
  • Education Liaison Officers act as a liaison between our children and their schools.
  • Therapists provide therapeutic support to foster children by working closely with the foster family as well as the wider support network around a placement. Therapy can be delivered individually or through groups.

The success of Team Parenting™ on a global scale has proved that the smallest specialist intervention from one of these professional support services can make all the difference to a foster care placement.

Team Parenting™ and complex needs

Team Parenting™ is aimed at addressing the therapeutic needs of children and youth in foster care. It is often referred to as ‘therapeutic foster care’. This explains the joint approach to creating a therapeutic environment for the child or young person within their foster home.

The Therapist directs a team built to support children in placement, which is made up of the foster carer and various professionals who specialize in different fields.

A Team Parenting™ meeting may be held to discuss a foster child’s needs before a foster care placement or shortly after it begins.

By addressing feelings and anxieties, Team Parenting™ professionals work hard to ensure that issues from the past do not go on to damage the future of a foster child. Therefore, Team Parenting™ does not just benefit the stability of a placement; it increases the level of attachment between the child or youth and their foster parent.

Team Parenting™ and cultural identity

At Key Assets Fostering we believe that, wherever possible, children should live with families within their own communities. However, where this is not possible, we seek to support our foster carers to promote and protect the cultural identity of a child or young person.

In Aboriginal or First Nation communities, the Team Parenting™ approach can be adapted to place a greater emphasis on a child's cultural identity. This approach is reflected in the Team Parenting™ diagram on the right hand side of this page, which depicts the young person at the center of a multidisciplinary team.

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