Events archive

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?

Panel advisors have a complex role in managing the relationship between the agency and the panel, quality assuring and feeding back to all involved in panel work.

This open course will enable panel advisors to examine this role in detail and build on effective practice as they carry out their role and responsibilities including: quality assurance; inducting new panel members; contributing to the appraisals of panel members; feeding back issues to the agency and working with the agency decision maker. Case scenarios, group work and practice application will provide opportunities for panel advisors to address shared dilemmas and good practice.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Special guardians are usually family members or family friends who look after a child when the birth parent is deemed not able to, often due to the child being at risk of abuse or neglect despite interventions and support from social services. Michelle Hall's PhD explores the experience of contact from both the perspective of the special guardian and the birth parent. The study explores special guardians' experience and identifies three core areas of importance when managing contact with birth parents. This session will discuss each of those areas in depth, including how the findings may impact practice and the way we support special guardians with contact.

Foster carers are susceptible to allegations and/or complaints which will impact on the whole fostering household and their future as care givers. How should we as a profession respond to these situations in a sensitive, timely manner, whilst giving due regard to the safeguarding of children as well as the needs of carers and their household? This open course will address the process for distinguishing standards of care concerns from allegations or complaints, with opportunities to share good practice in recruiting, reviewing and supporting foster carers.

The open course will help to increase the understanding of the supervisory requirements of supervising social workers, in line with fostering legislation. It will look at roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children and young people and how foster carers can be supported and developed in their role.

This open course will look at the relevant statutory frameworks and recent case law, the challenges of working with relinquished babies and their parents, some of the complexities of the background histories of relinquished babies, the importance of counselling for relinquishing parents, care planning and the support needs of relinquished children and their adopters.

This half-day training is aimed at local authority professionals who are involved in the placement of children currently living with kinship carers in the UK; being placed overseas with kinship carers. It will provide an overview of the available research and Outbound data for children being placed abroad. There will then be ample time to discuss issues regarding viability and support plans for overseas cases during case studies and group discussion.