Events archive

FREE FOR MEMBERS
The first-ever National Kinship Care Strategy has been published. This session aims to explore the implications of the strategy on social work with kinship families and the impact it has on local authority planning, practice and workforce. Panel event.

OPEN TO ALL
The Nuffield-funded Expressions of Self research project aimed to listen to minoritised looked-after children and young people’s narratives on ethnicity, religion and identity, to inform policy and practice about their needs. During this last year we have spoken to 26 care-experienced children and young people from Black, South Asian and other minoritised backgrounds to understand how their perceive and experience their identities whilst in care. In this session we will use young people’s stories of identity and negotiating their identity to showcase learnings for frontline social workers.

This two-day open course will provide practitioners and particularly those who may be new to undertaking, quality assuring or considering fostering assessments with an opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and practice in completing fostering assessments. This workshop may also provide a refresher for those wanting to reflect and build on knowledge skills and best practice in the completion of fostering assessments.

The responsibilities of a Chair can be considerable. Whereas some duties may be clearly outlined in related practice guidance along with the qualities that ensure effective chairing, not all Chair responsibilities are so helpfully detailed or provided. This workshop will explore general planning for and facilitation of panels and complex meetings in the children’s sector. It will explore time management and group facilitation whilst holding the child at the centre of thinking, recommendations and decision making. It will enable Chairs of meetings to consider good practice and approaches to effectively managing the flow of information, summarising and the formation of key action plans.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
In this session, Hedwig Verhagen, will be discussing some of findings from her latest book - Parenting Matters: Parenting a child affected by child to parent violence and aggression. We will be discussing CPVA in an adoption context, the strategies for helping children and their families affected by CPVA and an overview of best practice guidance for social workers. Hedwig Verhagen is an independent therapeutic social worker and a social work lecturer at the University of Leeds. She has an MSc in Therapeutic Interventions for Psychological Trauma.

This two-day open course will provide practitioners and particularly those who may be new to undertaking, quality assuring or considering fostering assessments with an opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and practice in completing fostering assessments. This workshop may also provide a refresher for those wanting to reflect and build on knowledge skills and best practice in the completion of fostering assessments.

The PACE parenting approach was developed by Dr Dan Hughes for parents and carers of children who are adopted or live in foster or kinship care families. PACE stands for Playfullness, Acceptance. Curiosity, and Empathy and is an attitude has proved to be helpful for many professionals working in adoption, fostering or kinship care services.

The role of the panel administrator is a multidimensional one. Effective adoption and fostering panels are crucial to the delivery of a good adoption and fostering service, and the provision of services for looked after children. The efficient administration of panels, including the provision of clear and accurate minutes, is a skilled and complex task that is essential to the smooth and effective operation of panels. This open course will enable adoption and fostering panel administrators to examine related legislation and share best practice though group discussion and practice application.

In 2015 research, conducted jointly between the UK children’s charity Coram and the University of Bristol found great variation in the quality of life story books across England and Wales with many being of poor quality. The same research found that children were largely poorly prepared to explore their histories, adoption professionals and agencies did not seem to prioritise life story books, and that adopters felt poorly prepared in how to use and update life story books with their children. This open course will enable participants to explore best practice in the facilitation of ongoing life story work which will enable children’s and young people’s understanding of their past, acceptance of their present and hopefulness about the future.

Decision makers in fostering and adoption agencies have a vital but often under-explored role. Many decision makers describe finding themselves in the role with little or no preparation, and with few arenas locally to share dilemmas or discuss best practice. What is the best process for reaching a sound decision? How can you avoid it simply becoming a ‘rubber-stamping’ exercise? What is your role in relation to the quality assurance of the panel’s activities? How should a decision maker appraise a panel chair? What does a reasonable decision look like? How should it be conveyed?