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Emma Fincham, CoramBAAF’s Fostering Consultant, reflects on the need for reform in foster care and current challenges faced by foster carers and practitioners

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Overseas placements can feel like a step into the unknown. But exploring these placements can begin the journey toward a lasting, stable and loving home. It is vital that professionals build their confidence in international placement to maximise positive outcomes for the children they work with. In this session, we will be joined by Senior Solicitors, Catrin Hughes and Lauren Logan who will share their experience of attempting to place children in two different areas of Germany from Enfield Council on a Special Guardianship Order.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
The International Conference on Adoption Research (ICAR-8), held in July 2024, focused on ensuring permanent, nurturing family care for children. It gathered global experts to share research, best practices, and innovations in adoption. This upcoming session will explore insights from the conference and how they can be applied to the UK’s children and families sector. Key learning outcomes include understanding global adoption practices, addressing the identity needs of adopted children, exploring brain development in childhood and adolescence, and best practices for supporting adult adopters.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
In this session Paul Shuttleworth will be discussing why children's views are worthy of inclusion in research and shaping policy and practice in kinship care. Paul will discuss his research, the first that solely listens to children's insights about emotional permanence. The research also champions a new ‘what matters’ approach. This can be used in further research as well as in practice and everyday family life.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Overseas placements can feel like a step into the unknown. But exploring these placements can begin the journey toward a lasting, stable and loving home. In this session, we will be joined by Lead Practitioner Alison Wheeler who will share her experience of placing a child in Australia from Brighton and Hove Council on a Special Guardianship Order. Covering all aspects from viability to final placement, we will explore the challenges practitioners face in a real-world setting and how to navigate them successfully.

CoramBAAF would like to support a better understanding of private fostering and this often hidden group of children. We launched a Private Fostering Survey in July 2024, as a first attempt to gather some basic data about the national picture from our members.

Creative Life Story Work is a new approach to helping care-experienced children and young people understand their own life stories. The approach is led by Blue Cabin, a North East of England -based charity which transforms outcomes for care-experienced children and young people, and is based on the Rose model of Therapeutic Life Story Work. Between 2020 and 2021, Creative Life Story Work was rolled out in three local authorities in the North East of England: Gateshead, Darlington and South Tyneside, with funding from What Works Centre for Social Care. This session focuses on an introduction to CLSW and research conducted by Coram impact and evaluation and Ipsos Mori.

James Bury explores what we can expect from a Labour Government and highlights ongoing issues that need attention and continued support.