Training & events programme

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.

Decision makers in fostering and adoption agencies have a vital but often under-explored role. Many decision makers describe finding themselves in the role with little or no preparation, and with few arenas locally to share dilemmas or discuss best practice. What is the best process for reaching a sound decision? How can you avoid it simply becoming a ‘rubber-stamping’ exercise? What is your role in relation to the quality assurance of the panel’s activities? How should a decision maker appraise a panel chair? What does a reasonable decision look like? How should it be conveyed?

FREE FOR MEMBERS.
Hear from Polly Baynes, a children and families social worker with over 36 years of experience. Polly's research explores the experiences of 10 mothers and fathers of keeping in touch with children who were no longer in their care, using photographs and interviews. Contact provided an important but limited opportunity to express a continued sense of parental responsibility. Parents used familiar food, toys and children’s belongings to maintain connections to their past shared life with the child and as expressions of loving care across the boundaries of placement and into the future. The research shows there is potential for family time settings to provide increased support in the aftermath of separation to the benefit of both parent and child, improving the prospects of safe reunification and positive long term connections.        

OPEN TO ALL
As the government advances its latest fostering reforms, the sector faces a shift in how children’s placements are planned, commissioned and supported. This panel event brings together key figures from policy and practice to explore what these changes will mean for across England. Designed for social workers, managers and local authority leaders, this session will start the conversation on the government’s reform agenda and what it means for practice, as well as providing a basis to help teams prepare for a changing landscape.

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.

This course provides supervising social workers the opportunity to develop their practice and confidence in these areas. It will include a review their role and responsibilities in relation to foster carers and promote the development of best practice.

Panel advisers 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.

The Child Permanence Report (CPR) is the primary document used by the Agency Decision Maker to reach their decision that the child ‘should be placed for adoption’. The CPR also provides information for adoption panels to reach their recommendations when children are being placed for adoption with the consent of their birth parents. This open course will support social workers to understand the content, purpose and function of the Child Permanence Report (CPR), good practice in its undertaking and how it can be used to provide a full picture of each child’s journey and needs.

Annual Reviews are an essential part of our statutory support and supervision of foster carers. In this open course, we explore how to complete an annual review well. We explore how to ensure the review meets the needs of the Fostering Service to be legally compliant, but also of carers to feel valued and supported, whilst keeping children at the centre of the process.

OPEN TO ALL
The ReThink project team, in collaboration with CoramBAAF, are pleased to invite you to our upcoming free webinar on Supporting the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Care-experienced Young People During Early Adolescence and the Transition to Secondary School. The webinar will present key findings from the ReThink Project - one of the largest UK studies of the mental health and wellbeing needs of care-experienced young people during critical transition periods, including the move from primary to secondary school.