Training & events programme

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.

This open course aims to give new and recently appointed fostering and adoption panel members an opportunity to develop their role as effective panel members and to consider the tasks and responsibilities involved. This will be within the context of the current legislative framework and emerging messages from research. Fostering and adoption/permanency panel work is challenging to all concerned in the process. This course is intended to share issues, dilemmas and best practice.

LAST FEW TICKETS
We are delighted to announce a date for our Adoption Conference. This conference is set to become a key event in the calendar of social work practitioners working with adoption families. It is a conference that brings together practice and ideas that are current, relevant to you, and which matter.

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.

FREE FOR MEMBERS

This Exploring Expertise webinar will introduce practitioners to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Better Records Together campaign and its implications for children’s social care practice. Drawing on the ICO’s new care records standards and research with care-experienced people, the session will explore how organisations can improve the way records are created, managed and shared.

This course is designed to support those who have previously attended “The role of the supervising social worker in supervising and supporting foster carers” and now looking to develop their practice further.
On this course you will explore how good quality, challenging supervision can contribute to a high quality of care provided by foster and kinship carers and to establishing and maintaining effective working relationships. We will explore the balancing the potentially conflicting role of the supervising social worker, who needs to balance providing support with the need to sometimes have difficult conversations too.

FREE FOR MEMBERS

This session will explore how AI can support social work practice without weakening professional judgement, and the support, guidance and training required to accompany the use of these tools.

Foster carers are increasingly being asked to care for a parent and their child during care proceedings, and to contribute towards the assessment of parenting capacity. This type of arrangement is complex, involving different tasks and responsibilities.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
The Reflective Fostering Programme is a group intervention for carers looking after children aged between 4 and 12 years. It increases carers’ ability to mentalise about the feelings and thoughts of themselves and the child leading to lower levels of stress and burnout and a better relationship with the child. In this session, we unpack the latest research studies on the effectiveness of the reflective fostering programme in supporting foster carers.

This course is an opportunity to consider what we know about staying in touch from research, including what works well, the voices of those with lived experience, and aspects that may present challenges or need more support.