Events archive

In 2015 research, conducted jointly between the UK children’s charity Coram and the University of Bristol found great variation in the quality of life story books across England and Wales with many being of poor quality. The same research found that children were largely poorly prepared to explore their histories, adoption professionals and agencies did not seem to prioritise life story books, and that adopters felt poorly prepared in how to use and update life story books with their children.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
This session focused primarily on supporting children who have witnessed or experienced domestic abuse prior to coming into care. It offered information on how domestic abuse affects children at different ages and stages in their development, the care these children need, and how best to assess, prepare and support them and the families caring for them. Presented by Hedy Cleaver and Wendy Rose OBE.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Very little is known about what it is like to be a carer for a sibling, or being brought up by your older sister or brother. This session will focus on the findings from a narrative study focused on the experiences of these sibling-headed families, and practitioner experiences in assessing and supporting them. Our presenter is Lorna Stabler. Lorna has been a Research Associate at CASCADE, Cardiff University for five years and is currently an ESRC funded PhD student at DECIPHer, Cardiff University.

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.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Permanence remains the goal of children’s social care. But ensuring that children from troubled backgrounds grow up in ‘stable homes, built on love’ (Department for Education 2023) is inevitably a challenge in all forms of permanence. Emeritus Professor Gillian Schofield OBE and Dr. Birgit Larsson deliver their assessment of long-term foster care as a permanence option by sharing the messages from 25 years' of research at the University of East Anglia.

The good practice guide Learning from Case Reviews 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.

This open course will offer a comprehensive approach to undertaking sibling assessments. It will explore who the key contributors to sibling assessments are and how assessors can plan assessments and engage these contributors in the process. Most importantly it will explore how to gain the views of the children, observe sibling interactions and draw conclusions on the quality of sibling relationships as well as focusing on the individual needs of each child and of the sibling group.

The PACE parenting approach was developed by Dr Dan Hughes  for parents and carers of children who are adopted or live in foster or kinship care families. PACE stands for Playfullness, Acceptance. Curiosity and Empathy and is an attitude has proved to be helpful for many professionals working in adoption, fostering or kinship care services. 

This open course will be an opportunity to explore personal and professional values and thresholds in respect of assessing connected persons, including tools to assist in assessing the child’s and the Connected Persons’ continued relationship with the birth parents and any possible risks posed to the child and carer and how these can be managed.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
In this session Denise McLean, experienced social worker and chair of CoramBAAF's Black Workers Support Group, will be sharing her experiences of sibling reunion and meeting some of her siblings for the first time as an adult, and reflecting on this from both her personal and her professional perspective. Denise will also discuss her reflections and implications for social work practice.