Events archive

The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund has been available to children living with special guardians since 2016, and its name was changed in 2023 with the publication of the National Kinship Care Strategy. Although the number of applications made on behalf of children living with special guardians is slowly increasing, the number of applications is still considerably lower than those made for adopted children.

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 good practice guide, Safeguarding children living with foster carers, Adopters and Special Guardians: Learning from case reviews 2007–2019, is based on a UK wide study of 52 case reviews concerning 98 children who had experienced serious harm while living with foster carers, adopters or special guardians. The study spans 12 years and is the first to focus exclusively on reviews of cases of children in alternative family care. It shines a spotlight on those issues particular to these children – selection and assessment of carers; support for children and carers; and the supervision and management of arrangements.

OPEN TO ALL
CoramBAAF is excited to publish the new  Prospective Foster Carer Report (Form F) England. Form F is an assessment framework which encapsulates the work that has been done with the assessing social worker and the prospective foster carer/s. The assessing social worker undertaking a Form F will assess the capacity, experiences, motivations and skills applicants bring and also prepares them for the task of fostering. The form has undergone a substantial revision. In this session, we will be looking at how Form F has been informed by feedback from practitioners, foster carers, care experienced adults and others within the sector. The revisions are designed to be strengths-based, trauma-informed and streamlining the process.

Safeguarding is a shared responsibility for any of us working with children. This course is an opportunity to reflect more deeply on your role as a panel member when thinking about safeguarding children. It will provide you with an opportunity to re-visit some of the key legislation that governs your role. Using case studies and scenarios, you will be able to explore and discuss what safeguarding means in practice, in the context of the assessment and review of foster carers. You will be able to reflect on your own personal and professional identity and how this may impact on your role as a panel member.

The session will present insights from Al Coates' international Churchill Fellowship Report, focusing on support models and interventions for families managing children with care experience who exhibit challenging and violent behaviour, which is more common among kinship carers and adoptive parents than the general population.

OPEN TO ALL
As the UK’s leading membership organisation for professionals working across adoption, fostering and kinship care we want to equip professionals like you with the knowledge, best practices, and resources needed to improve the lives of children and young people. This is why we are launching a breakfast webinar series to help you “get started in adoption, fostering and kinship care.

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.

OPEN TO ALL
As the UK’s leading membership organisation for professionals working across adoption, fostering and kinship care we want to equip professionals like you with the knowledge, best practices, and resources needed to improve the lives of children and young people. This is why we are launching a breakfast webinar series to help you get started in adoption, fostering and kinship care.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Despite ongoing national reforms to the kinship care agenda, there is still a dearth of knowledge relating to the assessment, engagement and support needs of African and Carribbean kinship care families. Sharon McPherson, co-director of Families in Harmony, set out to explore this knowledge gap by conducting an exploratory mixed method approach in Jamaica – the country of origin for the largest population of Windrush migrants- which included semi-structured in-person one-to-one interviews with around 10 kinship caregivers and 20 professionals.