My book of memories
| Michelle Bell
The booklet, designed for children to complete, that accompanies Elfa and the box of memories
| Michelle Bell
The booklet, designed for children to complete, that accompanies Elfa and the box of memories
| Michelle Bell
Memories can be good and bad, happy and sad; those we want to keep alive and others we would rather forget. Looked after children may have more difficult memories that most, because of separation and loss and traumatic events that may have taken place. In this charming picture book, Elfa the elephant discovers that sharing her memories and remembering the good things that happened is more helpful than keeping them locked away.
| Multiple
This special issue of the journal is guest edited by Sonia Jackson, editor of Nobody Ever Told Us School Mattered(BAAF, 2001) and a leading researcher and writer in the field. It focuses on the education of looked-after children and how and where they are supported or – more often – failed by “the system”. It features articles from England, Scotland and Australia. Themes include: the role of social pedagogy in foster care; education and self-reliance among care leavers; the work of Our Place, a special centre promoting the educational achievement of looked after and adopted children; and the views of adoptive parents.
| Jill Seeney
All young children have worries, but looked after children may have more worries than most as they lack the reassurance and security of permanent, stable family life. In this colourful picture book for young children, Morris the mole finds out that talking about his problems, and facing his worries with the help of others, is more helpful than hiding his fears.
| Kate Cairns and Eileen Fursland
Many children in foster care show a range of challenging behaviour. When foster carers look after these children, they are taking certain risks with their own health, which can include “secondary traumatic stress”. This training course gives carers the knowledge they need to recognise stress disorders, to help prevent them and to get the right treatment to assess and manage risk and to work as part of a team to provide safe caring.
| Judith Foxon
This engaging picture book, designed for use with young children, looks at the difficult issue of domestic violence and what this could mean for the children involved. Spark and Flame learn to understand why they had to leave home, why they cannot live with their birth parents any more, and to come to terms with their painful emotions.
| Mary Beek and Gillian Schofield
This DVD accompanies the handbook and training programme of the same name, and supports each module in the training programme. The programme will provide workers and carers with a framework both for understanding the thinking and behaviour of the children in their care and for helping children to settle and flourish in their family placements.
| Jo Lipscombe
Since the early 1990s, the number of children and young people remanded to custody has more than doubled and continues to increase. This timely study explores the use of foster care as an alternative to custodial and residential accommodation for young people on remand.
| Mary Beek and Gillian Schofield
This training programme will provide workers and carers with a framework both for understanding the thinking and behaviour of the children in their care and for helping children to settle and flourish in their family placements. It accompanies the handbook and DVD of the same name.
| Edited by Henrietta Bond
This is a book about ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. It is a collection of first-person accounts from foster carers, who tell us what it's like to foster children and young people, many of whom have experienced loss, trauma, abuse, or just a very difficult start in life. Invariably, they experience problems, challenges and disappointments, but also the successes, triumphs and rewards that fostering can offer.