International applications of the Secure Base model

International applications of the Secure Base model

The Secure Base model of therapeutic caregiving has been a focus of practice development and training internationally, in a wide range of countries.

The Secure Base model was first shared internationally by Gillian Schofield and Mary Beek at an International Foster Care Organisation conference in Finland in 2002. The model was taken up initially in Norway, where Dr Toril Havik of Bergen University and practitioners from Bergen and Oslo from 2005 promoted the dissemination and implementation of the Secure Base model.

The model was taken up initially in Norway, where Dr Toril Havik of Bergen University and practitioners from Bergen and Oslo from 2005 promoted the dissemination and implementation of the Secure Base model in both working with children and training and supporting foster carers. This provided an important example of country wide implementation and coincided with the timing of the first recommendation of the model for training and supporting foster carers by the UK government in Care Matters 2007.

Since that period the Secure Base model has been disseminated at conferences and training events in a range of countries from Spain, France, Italy and the Czech Republic to Australia and New Zealand. The model has also been translated into a number of languages, including Greek and Japanese.

These developments were primarily in countries with established foster care systems, but the Secure Base model has also been used to support the development of new systems of foster care as an alternative to institutional care: for example, through Mary Beek’s work with Care for Children in China and South-East Asia developing training programmes to be delivered by local staff. As of 2025, Care for Children is planning to use the model in their online training programme, My Family, to support global deinstitutionalisation.

From 2019, Mary also worked with Care in Action to introduce the Secure Base model in Ukraine, where it has become well-established by local staff in training foster carers.

The range of areas of practice and countries who have taken up the model has been facilitated by the free availability of resources on this Secure Base website, including PPTs available for translation. With that in mind, we have assembled translations of the key Secure Base model diagrams/cycles in a range of languages (more will be added). Each is accompanied by some additional information about the source of the translation. There is more translated material available in some languages than others, but all have the core model diagram.

These Secure Base model materials are free to use but, as with other materials on the website, with the condition that the source of the Secure Base model is acknowledged as Gillian Schofield and Mary Beek, University of East Anglia, UK.