Events archive

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Designed for frontline social workers, social work supervisors, managers and professionals working directly with children and young people. In this sessions, participants will learn about legal and statutory requirements for social workers working with Muslim children, their families, or alternative carers. We will further explore cultural religious awareness, identity & intersectionality and supporting best practice. Our presenters are Kusha Anand and Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor of Coventry University.

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.

The role of the panel administrator is a multidimensional one. Effective adoption and fostering panels are crucial to the delivery of a good adoption and fostering service, and the provision of services for looked after children. The efficient administration of panels, including the provision of clear and accurate minutes, is a skilled and complex task that is essential to the smooth and effective operation of panels. This open course will enable adoption and fostering panel administrators to examine related legislation and share best practice though group discussion and practice application.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Around two-thirds of children are taken into State care due to experiences of severe maltreatment such as abuse or neglect. Consequently, being taken into care is an intervention for this vulnerable group of children, with the expectation that State care will then ameliorate or stabilise their mental health. Despite this, numerous research studies indicate that mental health concerns in this vulnerable child population remain high. This session, presented by Dinithi Wijedasa of Bristol University, will highlight practice and policy-relevant findings from two ESRC-funded research studies.

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.

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 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
Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB), a leading charity specialising in cross-border social work cases and the UK representative of the International Social Service network. In this sessions we will be exploring some of their inter-country Child Protection Work and the interactions between UK local authorities and foreign authorities.

The open course will help to increase the understanding of the supervisory requirements of supervising social workers, in line with fostering legislation. It will look at roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children and young people and how foster carers can be supported and developed in their role.

This session will look at the relationship-based practice model in family justice pioneered by social workers and lawyers in Sussex. We will explore its impact on local practice and its role in fostering a culture of respect and inclusion within the family justice system.