Training & events programme

We are inviting expressions of interest for our ‘Pitching Good Practice’ spots at the Kinship Conference on 12 October 2026. We would like to give local authorities the opportunity to share practice and development work relating to their Kinship Local Offer that you feel proud of and think other local authorities would like to learn about.

Accurate and succinct minutes are an essential part of many meeting processes. They provide a formal record of the discussions and recommendations, and are used for a variety of purposes following the meeting including to inform decision-making, to contribute to child and carer files, and to provide an account of decision-made when children or adults access their files in the future. This course will help you learn the statutory and good practice requirements around minute-taking across various meeting contexts, including fostering and adoption panels, disruption meetings, carer reviews and professionals meetings. You will have the opportunity to practice skills to ensure your minutes are accurate, informative and of high quality.

FREE FOR MEMBERS
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.

Some kinship carers are approved as kinship foster carers and therefore their situation and circumstances are often very different to mainstream foster carers. This course provides an opportunity to reflect on the statutory framework of approval, support, supervision and review of kinship foster carers and how this unique context differs from that of mainstream fostering. This course does not cover kinship assessment practice, but rather focuses on approval, support and review beyond the assessment process.  

The Law Commission has published its Kinship Care Consultation Paper. It sets out the key issues they have identified with the legal frameworks that govern different types of kinship care arrangements. Alongside reflections and analysis, the paper also sets out their provisional proposals for reform. Join our legal and kinship consultants for opportunities over three lunchtime events to hear the proposals and share your thoughts.

Let's acknowledge and celebrate difference. Understand neurodiversity as a natural variation to ‘the norm’ rather than as something that is disordered, dysfunctional or deficient. This session is an introduction to aspects of neurodiversity including autism, dyslexia and ADHD. It will give an overview to increase participants' knowledge and develop confidence in the subject.

The Law Commission has published its Kinship Care Consultation Paper. It sets out the key issues they have identified with the legal frameworks that govern different types of kinship care arrangements. Alongside reflections and analysis, the paper also sets out their provisional proposals for reform. Join our legal and kinship consultants for opportunities over three lunchtime events to hear the proposals and share your thoughts.

The Law Commission has published its Kinship Care Consultation Paper. It sets out the key issues they have identified with the legal frameworks that govern different types of kinship care arrangements. Alongside reflections and analysis, the paper also sets out their provisional proposals for reform. Join our legal and kinship consultants for opportunities over three lunchtime events to hear the proposals and share your thoughts.

Formulating questions is an important aspect of a panel member’s role. This course gives panel members the opportunity to deepen their understanding around this underestimated skill. Panel members will be able to practice what to ask and how to ask it, while reflecting on their own values and beliefs and how these influence thinking.

This course will explore the support needs of special guardianship families, how to carry out assessment of support needs which are sensitive to the needs of kinship care families, and the how these needs may be most effectively met. This course will explore; best practice, regulation and practice guidance, assessments, eligibility criteria and access to therapeutic support services, the impact of early trauma, identity issues, and the benefits and challenges of contact.