Members' Week | A child's journey through placement
We ran our first ever CoramBAAF Members' Day in 2016. We wanted to connect with our members, share our work with you and create an opportunity for members to come together and share experiences, challenges and opportunities. We received great feedback on this so decided to it all again! So since then, every September we run a Members’ Day – or in the last two years a Members’ Week.
So why is Members' Week important to us? It allows us to debate and explore the issues that matter most to our members, the thorny, the wonderful and the difficult issues for the children, young people and families that you work with. It allows us to share our work as well as that of other key professionals and agencies in our sector. And it provides an opportunity for our members to network with each other and with us, to learn, to share, to listen. Importantly, it allows us to say a big thank you to you – all our members – for your continued support and engagement. And to remind ourselves that by working together we can positively impact the lives of children and young people in care.
This year’s Members’ Week theme is A child’s journey through placement – and we will explore key topics and best practices that mirror the journey of children and young people through the care system.
We have lots of stuff for you! Throughout the week we will be sharing a daily update in a dedicated newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. The update will feature frequently asked questions from our advice line, with sample answers to help you improve your practice. Each day we will also be running a short survey on a key topic or issue - we will collate your answers and share them with you in the following weeks.
You will also be able to attend or access webinars, podcast episodes, pre-recorded presentations, blog posts, new resources and more. Join us by:
- Listening to a discussion between our legal consultant, Alexandra Conroy-Harris, and our adoption consultant, Jane Poore, about how to use your legal department in social services.
- Attending our key panel event where we will consider if care experienced people should be a protected characteristic. Terry Galloway is a longstanding campaigner on this issue and so far 49 councils across the UK have signed up to this. He will be joined by a panel of children’s services leaders, councillors, campaigners and care-experienced young people to debate this topic and the implications for policy and practice.
- Reading a blog by Sharon McPherson of Families in Harmony, and a Churchill Fellow, she will contextualise her research, outline her intent, and share the next steps in her exploration of reimagining kinship care through cultural curiosity.
- Joining our fostering consultant, Emma Fincham; and Rebekah Pierre, a care-experienced author, social worker and campaigner for a workshop where they will explore how thinking, speaking and writing about young people directly impact on increasing or decreasing their opportunities, their choices and the decisions available to them.
- Reading a blog by Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Alison Halford and Kusha Anand. They will help us to explore identity and the importance of encouraging an exploration of identity during a child’s journey through care, and will share their findings from two large research projects on this topic.
- Listen to Augusta Itua, our legal consultant and a Churchill Fellow, in conversation with author Julia Feast OBE; Julia is an Independent Consultant, specialising in the life-long issues of being adopted, in care and donor-conceived. They will be talking us through the current barriers and support available to care experienced people wanting to access their records.
But these are just some of the many things that you can read, listen to, watch or join throughout the week. So, sign up to get updates about our Members’ Week and what is happening each day. We are really looking forward to the week and can’t wait to get started – hope to see many of you there!
Ellen Broomé, Managing Director, CoramBAAF