Events archive

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.

Part two of our Lunch & Learn series in collaboration with Adoption England. Yoni Ejo returns to deliver a presentation on family finding and adoption assessment. This session focuses on the challenges facing transracially adopted children and parents from the perspective of a transracial adoptee and adopter

FREE EVENT
As part of Social Work England: Social Work Week (20-24 March 2023) - a programme of events from across the sector. The webinar examined how social workers write about children and young people. Care experienced adults report that reading their files can be hugely impactful for them. We discussed how language used when describing a child and their experiences can be interpreted at a later date.

This open course will address the process for distinguishing standards of care concerns from allegations or complaints, with opportunities to share good practice in recruiting, reviewing and supporting foster carers.

Analysing adult health assessments is a key element of assessing adopters and foster carers. This includes providing reports and evidence-based comments so that panels can reach appropriate decisions. This course is designed to support medical advisers in their role. It is particularly suitable for new or inexperienced medical advisers.