Holding the Rope: Effectively Supporting Trauma-Impacted Families needing Respite – Short and Smart Session – 1hr

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities),  Independent Professionals and those professionals providing services and support to foster carers, kinship carers, and Special Guardians.

Details

Caring for traumatized children is exhausting and isolating; a 2025 Belay Foundation survey of 179 families found that while 71% need immediate respite, only 9% receive regular informal help or statutory support. Most parents feel misunderstood by their social networks, leaving a critical gap in the stable care these children require.

To address this, The Belay Foundation provides trauma-responsive in-home care delivered by Specialist Support Workers who prioritize a child’s safety and development. Since 2020, this model has empowered over 50 families by specializing in the recruitment, training, and retention of skilled workers to improve long-term resilience and wellbeing.

This session explores why trauma-responsive respite is a vital intervention for families of care-experienced children. We aim to equip professionals with the knowledge to help families identify, access, and implement specialist support that “holds the rope.”

We will examine the Belay model—rooted in PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy)—and discuss why traditional childcare often fails children with developmental trauma. By the end of the hour, you will understand how to integrate attachment-focused respite into care plans to reduce caregiver secondary trauma and increase placement stability.

Learning 0utcomes

• Understand the “Belay” Model: Gain a clear understanding of what trauma-responsive, home-based respite looks like and how it differs from traditional childcare models.

• Broaden Clinical Perspective: Develop a deeper insight into why attachment-focused support, rooted in PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy), is a clinical necessity for families living with adopted, kinship, and SGO children.

• Strengthen Placement Stability: Access practical knowledge on how to integrate specialist respite into care plans to reduce secondary trauma for caregivers and prevent placement breakdown.

• Equip and Signpost: Feel better equipped to identify families who would benefit from this specific intervention and confidently signpost parents toward the resources and support they need.

About the trainer

Helen Willis

Helen is Operations Manager at The Belay Foundation, bringing her own lived experience as a solo adopter as well as a background in advocacy, employment advice and training. Helen has supported dozens of families to access trauma-responsive in-home respite care and leads regular DLA awareness sessions for Belay.

The Belay Foundation exists to realise a world where every child who has experienced early trauma can thrive in a permanent family, and every adoptive, kinship or special guardianship family is supported to heal and grow. Its mission is to provide information, advice, support and advocacy, rooted in lived experience, to strengthen family relationships and enable access to trauma-responsive care within systems that fully respond to families’ needs. Founded in 2020 by an adoptive parent and a clinical psychologist, The Belay Foundation was created to address a critical gap: practical, in-home, trauma-responsive support for families raising children with complex trauma histories.

Instructions

A member of staff will contact attendees one week before the event as a reminder— THERE WILL BE NO EVENT PACK FOR THIS SESSION, BUT RESOURCES WILL BE SHARED.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at [email protected]. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.

CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.