Training & events programme

Our social work practice must be guided by the values and principles of anti-racist practice and cultural humility. This means embedding them into all aspects of our work with families, bringing self-awareness of our own biases, assumptions and privileges, and centering families’ lived experience. 

This course is an opportunity to understand key concepts and consider why anti-racist practice and cultural humility matter. You will be supported to explore how you can build relationships with families that honour diverse perspectives and recognise unique needs, and explore tools to enable you to better understand the identities of children and their families. You will then consider how this understanding can be applied to your practice to develop culturally appropriate assessments and interventions that reflect the lived realities of children and families and take account of their intersecting identities.

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.

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.

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.

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
The Weekenders Programme by Now Foster is a new approach to fostering that offers consistent weekend care, building lasting relationships between new foster carers and children in care. This session will introduce the programme’s approach, how it operates across Greater London to support children in care orders, kinship and SGO care, and what we've learned so far. Designed in partnership with care-experienced young people, Weekenders responds directly to their needs and hopes. This event offers a chance to explore what's possible in fostering and how we bring more loving adults and relationships to the lives of care-experienced young people.

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.

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.

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.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Attachment theory is a staple of practice. However, the version of the theory in circulation is quite outdated. Not only does attachment theory today look very different to the paradigm initially introduced by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. More than this, with the accumulation of evidence over time, there have been some major revolutions since the 1990s. This webinar by Professor Robbie Duschinsky will discuss these fundamental changes that have occurred in attachment since the 1990s and consider the implications of these developments for practice with children and families