Fostering unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children eBook only
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children have survived the consequences of conflict and persecution – trauma, injury, pain, loss and separation. Once in the UK, local authorities have a duty to look after these vulnerable children to the same standards as any other looked after child, with an increasing number being placed in foster care. To help prepare them for the complex task of looking after these children, foster carers need formal training to give them additional understanding and skills to add to their existing experience and commitment.
This training course provides a comprehensive introduction to the issues. Agencies can use it to train experienced foster carers who have successfully completed foster carer preparation. The course is designed to cover two days, and will familiarise carers with the issues surrounding the children’s situation and the reality of looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children.
Who is this book for?
This course is designed for social care professionals to train foster carers who are, or who may be, looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children and young people.
What you will find in this book
This is a two-day training course, comprising a training handbook and CD-ROM with handouts. The course covers:
- Understanding the unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children context
- Understanding the experiences of refugee children
- Understanding the feelings and needs of refugee children
- Preparing to help refugee children cope with their experiences
- Preparing to help meet the practical needs of refugee children
- Preparing young refugees to leave care
- Caring for the carers
Authors
Selam Kidane was BAAF’s Refugee Children Project Consultant, and has also worked for family service units and outreach work on issues concerning refugees and mental health. She came to the UK seeing asylum as an unaccompanied child in the 1980s.
This book is available as an eBook only. It can be downloaded free by CoramBAAF members from the members’ area of the website or purchased below.
Sorry, but this book is currently out of stock.
Reviews
Although based on a research study, the book is written in a readable style. It combines the quantitative and qualitative information well and makes good use of material gathered through interviews, enabling the voice of the young people to come through very clearly. It will provide a useful manual for professionals new to this area of work, either working directly with young people or supporting their carers. While the book (perhaps unsurprisingly) delivers few unexpected insights or much that will be new to experienced practitioners in this area it provides an invaluable evidence base to work with asylum-seeking young people which may well be useful in arguing for resource allocation or for more attention to be given to specific areas of these young people’s needs.
Roger Smith, former manager of a service for asylum-seeking children in a London borough, Seen and Heard
This two-day training course for foster carers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children in the UK is much needed. The book is supported by a CD-ROM of overheads and handouts designed to familiarise experienced foster carers with the more complex issues surrounding and realities of looking after children who have suffered trauma, injury, pain, loss and separation. Piloted in the London Borough of Westminster, the manual gives clear direction as to how the resources can be used effectively by trainers.
Judy Hemingway, Educate 6:1