Seen, Heard and Supported: Working Compassionately with Birth Parents

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies, Local Authorities, and independent social workers), children’s social care services, children and family social workers, foster carers, kinship carers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

Supporting birth parents throughout the adoption journey requires sensitivity, honesty and a deep understanding of the profound loss many experience. This training offers practitioners a thoughtful and reflective space to explore the emotional, practical and relational challenges faced by birth families — both during the adoption process and in the period that follows.

The session led by Naomi Head, the lead for Scottish Adoption’s Bluebird project, will support participants to reflect on their own practice, consider the barriers birth families commonly encounter, and explore how support can be offered in ways that are compassionate, realistic and firmly rooted in what is best for the child, both in the short and longer term. It is designed for practitioners who want to deepen their understanding and approach this area of work with greater confidence and care.

We are very fortunate to be joined by Mandy, whose contribution makes this a particularly rare and valuable learning opportunity. Mandy brings both lived and professional experience, offering a perspective that is seldom available in training spaces of this kind. Over the past ten years working across the charity and third sector, she has focused on raising awareness of trauma, domestic abuse, cleft lip and palate, and the realities faced by lone parent families, families in crisis and birth parents.

By sharing her own story alongside professional insight, Mandy challenges assumptions and invites practitioners to think differently about adoption, fostering and birth parent experiences. Her input brings depth, honesty and humanity to the session, supporting more empathetic, informed and reflective approaches to practice.

Learning 0utcomes

• To gain ideas and guidance on how to work alongside birth parents and support them in a beneficial and effective manner
• To further the focus in your practice on birth parents and the role they can play with the adoption process and the importance of this for the child, the adopters and the birth parents themselves
• To gain a better first hand understanding of a birth parent’s experience of adoption
• To have a chance to reflect on our own personal practice and how this can be changed to improve our impact on families and their futures

About the Trainers

Naomi Head

Naomi has worked with Scottish Adoption and Fostering since 2015, as a Senior Practitioner in the Family Team. She brings over 20 years of experience as a social worker and has previously worked in a range of settings within the third sector, including with people affected by homelessness and addictions, children and families and independent assessment work.

Over the past 2 years, Naomi has also been Project Co-ordinator for Bluebird, the agency’s service for birth parents who have lost permanent care of a child, through adoption, fostering or kinship care.

Mandy Temple

Mandy brings both lived and professional experience, having previously worked with Scottish Adoption, the Cleft Lip and Palate Association, Muirhead Outreach Project and Fife Women’s Aid. She offers a unique and honest perspective on adoption and fostering. Over the past ten years in the charity and third sector, Mandy has worked to raise awareness of trauma, domestic abuse, cleft lip and palate, and the realities faced by lone parent families, families in crisis and birth parents. By sharing her story, she seeks to challenge perceptions and support more empathetic approaches.

Instructions

A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack.

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.