Hi Tulips - I am a retired sw and tm mgr in a Fostering & Adoption team (now retired after 30 years) - It sounds to me like the LA made a cock-up of your application. Sounds like they lost your forms (which is what misfiled) probably means. They were probably sitting at the bottom of someone's in-tray, and that is why you were not on the course recently started.
I don't think you are being impatient - it is true that there can be a long wait for the course, but I think you should have been on the current course if you returned your forms in May to indicate that you were still interested. Have you asked them when they intend to run the next course, and ask if they can ensure that you are given a place on the course next time. They can't possibly rule you out as unsuitable at this stage. Mind there are some exceptions (like the 86 year old woman who lived in a 1 bedroomed flat) whose son thought it might be a good idea for her to foster!! There are other people you visit who are clearly unsuitable and you don't invite them on to a prep course because you know it would be a waste of time. It has to be something very obvious though - like the example above or the woman who I was visiting and the room was divided with a sort of screen and I could hear someone moving about, so I asked if there was someone there and she said "yes, it's my husband but I don't want him to know I am applying to foster!" So I made a sharp exit!
If you go on the British Agencies for Fostering & Adoption (BAAF) there is a lot of useful information, or Fostering Networks (which is the national organisation for Fostering.) There are books you can buy on the sites. If there is one thing that a foster carer really needs to understand is attachment theory because almost every foster child will have had an insecure attachment with their birth parents, and foster carers need to understand that very often love is not enough for these children. They will have learned maybe from their very earliest days that adults are not to be trusted, because their needs were not met, and their parents maybe be physically available but not emotionally available to them. Most LAs run post approval courses on attachment issues, but you sound like someone who wants to find out as much as possible. There are lots of issues of course but I honestly think understand attachments issues is one of the most important. The other thing to think about is that for most children ho are in need of foster care, there is often a gap between their chronological age and their emotional age, so that is another helpful thing to read up on.
I'm sure if you put Attachment Issues or Attachment Disorders into Amaxon it would come up with something, but you will certainly get helpful books from BAAF. You can become a member (doesn't cost a lot to join) and you will receive quarterly helpful material and booklets on all aspects of fostering.
But remember, foster carers are like gold dust to LAs so make that call to the fostering team and find out when the next course will be and ask if they will ensure you are given a place.
Y