Training & events programme

Foster carers are susceptible to allegations and/or complaints which will impact on the whole fostering household and their future as care givers. How should we as a profession respond to these situations in a sensitive, timely manner, whilst giving due regard to the safeguarding of children as well as the needs of carers and their household? 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.

Child health assessments are a key component in permanence planning for looked after children. Medical Advisers need to be aware of the relevant legislation, statutory guidance and competencies framework. They are required to interpret information and present this in an informative and considered format for social care colleagues, panels and potential carers. This course will consider the Medical Adviser's role in adoption relating to children.

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.

The purpose of this open course is to give participants an opportunity to consider what good practice in assessing adult relationships is, exploring their own values and assumptions and to consider the importance of attachment styles; motivation; sex and sexuality; and loss and infertility.

This course is an opportunity to explore the legal and practice framework of private fostering, including thinking about how to identify and work with this often unseen group of children.

This course is designed to support those who have previously attended “The role of the supervising social worker in supervising and supporting foster carers” and now looking to develop their practice further.
On this course you will explore how good quality, challenging supervision can contribute to a high quality of care provided by foster and kinship carers and to establishing and maintaining effective working relationships. We will explore the balancing the potentially conflicting role of the supervising social worker, who needs to balance providing support with the need to sometimes have difficult conversations too.

This open course aims to give new and recently appointed fostering and adoption panel members an opportunity to develop their role as effective panel members and to consider the tasks and responsibilities involved. This will be within the context of the current legislative framework and emerging messages from research. Fostering and adoption/permanency panel work is challenging to all concerned in the process. This course is intended to share issues, dilemmas and best practice.

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.

All young people who are either care experienced or had social workers involved in their childhood, have the right to access the information that is written about them and saved on their files. In this open course, we examine these legal rights and the various legal frameworks that govern the processes around accessing care files. We consider best practice in supporting young people to access their care files, as well as consider the psychological and emotional benefits.

Panel advisors 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.