Foster Carers' Receptiveness to New Innovations and Programmes: An Example from the Introduction of Social Pedagogy to UK Foster Care

This article presents findings from interviews with foster carers who reflected on their experiences of a social pedagogy training programme in the UK. We explore the receptiveness of foster carers to the training and aspects that might have influenced receptiveness. We outline a typology of receptiveness and consider the perceived impact on their community of practice and compatibility with the existing children's social care system. Understanding what affects an individual's receptiveness to new programmes has broad applicability in social care and wider, as more sectors are tasked with providing high-quality services with less funding and smaller budgets. With a desire to both improve services and often having to save money, if service leaders can better understand ways to enhance openness and receptiveness of the participants on new programmes, then they might be able to better ensure its success. Foster carers characterise a highly diverse workforce that shares the choice to provide a home and family for children who can no longer reside with their family. This diversity makes supporting and providing for carers' training needs a complex task for fostering services. Understanding what might influence their engagement in training would be useful. This article outlines themes related to foster carers' engagement with social pedagogy, using data from the Head, Heart, Hands (HHH) programme evaluation. Analysis of interviews with seventy-six foster carers over a period of three years is presented. The emerging themes were used to devise an illustrative typology of receptiveness to training. The themes relate to the perceived impact of HHH on their practice and compatibility with the existing children's social care (CSC) system. The article explores the factors that may influence foster carers' positioning within the typology. The contributions that such a typology might make to the wider evidence base across CSC, in terms of the implementation and potential impacts of intervention, are discussed.