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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.

In the year ending March 23, according to the Department of Education data, there were 7290 unaccompanied-asylum seeking children and young people in care. We know there are more who are illegally placed in hotels or incorrectly age-assessed as adults. Many of these children and young people are vulnerable and experiencing discrimination. In this open course, we will explore their legal rights, think about their needs, how these can best be met and with what support.

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.

This course is aimed at social care professionals who are engaged in the assessment of prospective adoptive parents, foster carers and kinship carers and who wish to increase their awareness and confidence in considering gender issues in assessment, analysis and decision making. 

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.

This course provides supervising social workers the opportunity to develop their practice and confidence in these areas. It will include a review their role and responsibilities in relation to foster carers and promote the development of best practice.

Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the heart-warming story of Ruby and Gail and their belief in their potential to adopt. The story charts their journey to becoming parents to their three daughters and offers a glimpse of their family life over these extraordinary years, as their family grows together.

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.

The secure base model is a strengths-based framework for therapeutic caregiving informed by developments and research into attachment theory and child placement. It focuses on the interactions between a child and their caregiver that can support a child to experience greater security and build resilience.

This Practice Note offers guidance on key aspects of children moving cross-border from England to Scotland to be placed with adopters approved in Scotland, specifically addressing common queries received by AFKA Scotland and CoramBAAF’s Advice Line.