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, designated teachers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Mentalization allows parents to make sense of both their own and child’s internal states and can play a crucial role in understanding and supporting a child. Children can learn to mentalize through interaction with a caregiver who is able to take an interest in them, understanding their internal states and reactions.

Using mentalizing tools when considering matching practice in adoption can support practitioners to assess prospective adopter’s capacity to support and understand a child who has experienced early adversity.

This webinar provides a short introduction to understanding mentalization concepts and then the application of these to matching practice. Using mentalization questions can help identify how prospective adopters make sense of their own childhoods. Blocks to mentalizing can be fear, anger and shame, taking a mentalization focus can support practitioners to explore this. Using mentalizing tools for matching allow practitioners to explore the prospective adopter’s capacity to understand a child’s history and presentation. This can in turn help practitioners to contemplate the match between adopter and child.

The speakers use case studies to bring alive mentalization ideas and principles, discuss how to use mentalizing questions to inform matching practice and supervision and to support prospective adopters to be able to mentalize.

Learning 0utcomes

• Have a basic understanding of mentalization
• Understand the value of this framework when considering matching
• Feel confident applying the knowledge acquired about mentalization in interactions and discussions with adopters and Children’s social workers to inform the matching needs of a child
• Feel confident in the use of the mentalization based tools to analyse a match
• To be able to apply the learning from this session to the overall understanding of the support that parents and children may need after matching.

About the trainers

Dr Polly Cowan

Polly works as a part-time Practice Manager in a VAA and has a research interest in adoption, her PhD research was on adoption breakdown. Using mentalization in adoption assessment is a practice focus for her. Recent publications have been around eating behaviors in care experienced children and young people. She is as associate tutor at the University of Stirling. She sits as a tribunal member for the Additional Support Needs Tribunal in Scotland.

Dr Alice Loving

Alice has worked within the field of Child Protection for fourteen years, working directly supporting families in the community and within a mother and baby residential setting. She completed her PhD within the Social Care department at Royal Holloway University, which focused on exploring influencing factors on the outcomes for parents working with social services.  She delivers training on ‘Applying Attachment, Trauma and Mentalization based principles in social work practice’, to social care practitioners within the UK and Ireland. She is passionate about improving the teaching and training of social workers to better prepare them for relationship-based practice that facilitates more positive outcomes for families.She has published work in the Child and Family Social Work and Children England journals. Her most recent publications include a chapter titled ‘Working with cases of neglect and emotional abuse,’ featured in ‘Child Protection and the Care Continuum’. She has recently produced a practice guide titled ‘Attachment Trauma and Parenting’, commissioned by Community Care.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

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, designated teachers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

In this training session will look in detail at assessing prospective adopters with complex mental and health issues as a critical aspect of the adoption process. The assessment process must consider a wide range of issues, including Body Mass Index (BMI), unhealthy lifestyles, long-term medical conditions, and mental disorders to ensure prospective adopters are able to successfully parent a child and provide a safe and stable home.

Together with Ellie Johnson, a health consultant at CoramBAAF, we will get to the nitty gritty of the assessment process to consider the prospective adopter’s ability to manage their condition, and their ability to provide a secure and supportive environment for a child.

As part of this training, we will consider how to best ensure that prospective adopters receive appropriate treatment and support, so they can meet their adopted child’s needs.

Learning 0utcomes

• Understanding the importance of considering complex mental and health issues in the adoption process
• Awareness of the potential impact of high BMI, unhealthy lifestyles, long-term medical conditions, and mental disorders on an individual’s ability to parent
• Understanding the importance of considering an individual’s ability to manage their condition and provide a stable environment for a child
• Awareness of the importance of ensuring prospective adopters receive appropriate treatment and support
• Understanding the relationship between mental and physical health and its impact on the adoption process

About the trainer

Ellie Johnson

Ellie graduated from Manchester University with a nursing degree and worked as a nurse, midwife, health visitor and specialist public health practitioner in the NHS for 25 years. She was a designated nurse for looked after children for 14 years and chaired a regional LAC nursing network. During this time she was also involved in a joint project with the National Children’s Bureau focusing on inequalities in health experienced by looked after children.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

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, designated teachers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

Mentalization allows parents to make sense of both their own and child’s internal states and can play a crucial role in understanding and supporting a child. Children can learn to mentalize through interaction with a caregiver who is able to take an interest in them, understanding their internal states and reactions.

Using mentalizing tools in adoption assessments supports practitioners to assess prospective adopter’s capacity to support and understand a child who has experienced early adversity.

This webinar provides a short introduction to understanding mentalization concepts and then the application of these to assessment practice. Using mentalization questions can help identify how prospective adopters make sense of their own childhoods. Blocks to mentalizing can be fear, anger and shame, taking a mentalization focus can support practitioners to explore this. Mentalizing tools can enable prospective adopters to think about their own expectations of parenthood, whilst allowing them to contemplate the impact their own experience of childhood has had on them.

The speakers use case studies to bring alive mentalization ideas and principles, discuss how to use mentalizing questions to inform adoption assessments and supervision and to support prospective adopters to be able to mentalize.

Learning 0utcomes

• Have a basic understanding of mentalization
• Understand the value of this framework within the adoption setting
• Feel confident applying the knowledge acquired about mentalization in interactions and discussions with adopters.
• Feel confident in the use of the mentalization based tools in assessments of adopters.
• To be able to apply the learning from this session to the overall understanding and analysis of adoption suitability and
necesssary support.

About the trainers

Dr Polly Cowan

Polly works as a part-time Practice Manager in a VAA and has a research interest in adoption, her PhD research was on adoption breakdown. Using mentalization in adoption assessment is a practice focus for her. Recent publications have been around eating behaviors in care experienced children and young people. She is as associate tutor at the University of Stirling. She sits as a tribunal member for the Additional Support Needs Tribunal in Scotland.

Dr Alice Loving

Alice has worked within the field of Child Protection for fourteen years, working directly supporting families in the community and within a mother and baby residential setting. She completed her PhD within the Social Care department at Royal Holloway University, which focused on exploring influencing factors on the outcomes for parents working with social services.  She delivers training on ‘Applying Attachment, Trauma and Mentalization based principles in social work practice’, to social care practitioners within the UK and Ireland. She is passionate about improving the teaching and training of social workers to better prepare them for relationship-based practice that facilitates more positive outcomes for families.She has published work in the Child and Family Social Work and Children England journals. Her most recent publications include a chapter titled ‘Working with cases of neglect and emotional abuse,’ featured in ‘Child Protection and the Care Continuum’. She has recently produced a practice guide titled ‘Attachment Trauma and Parenting’, commissioned by Community Care.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

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 and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

The You Can Adopt campaigns have yielded some success but as a sector, our recruitment has not solved the matching needs of the children who wait the longest, or now simply are not considered for adoption, as we assume no adopter can be found. We expect a lot of prospective adopters but it is important to remember that, in essence, all applicants are volunteers, often with little or no experience of the needs of the children who wait, so how do we bridge this divide?

Through innovative approaches and a deep dive into various perspectives, this training session will enhance assessment practitioners’s confidence and skills, providing a better understanding of their pivotal role and its impact on assessment outcomes.

Our commitment extends beyond the assessor to the heart of adoption itself. You will discover strategies to elevate the experience for prospective adopters, allowing them to authentically showcase their potential. You will learn how to implement actionable steps that pave the way for them to realise their true capabilities.

Above all, our collective goal is to contribute to the welfare of children awaiting adoption, with a focus on those in priority groups. By participating in this practice session, you will be equipped to deliver higher-quality, more robust assessments that serve the unique needs of every child.

Learning 0utcomes

• Think about the role of an assessing social worker in adoption assessments
• Explore ways of gathering relevant information during an assessment
• Enhance their analytical skills so we can utilise these in future reports
• Explore ways to prepare applicants for the reality of adoption
• Build confidence in their abilities to work with applicants and panels
• Understand the relational aspects of everyone involved in adoption assessments
• Gather knowledge that can be put to use and shared in teams

About the trainer

Satwinder Sandhu

Satwinder is a leader in the adoption sector, influencing national and international practice and policy. He is a qualified social worker with almost thirty-years of work experience in adoption, fostering and children in public care. Satwinder is passionate about how adoption needs to modernise and focussing this evolution on the needs, and experiences, of adopted people. At Changing Script he is also involved in driving change in organisations through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. Satwinder is a TEDx speaker and a member of numerous sector Boards, including the Rees Centre, University of Oxford. Satwinder took up the role of CEO at CVAA UK in October 2023.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

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 and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

This practice session will introduce the new Adoption Assessment Report (AAR) and the supporting Toolkit, a distinct method of assessing adopters that is designed to strengthen assessment and matching, leading to better outcomes for children with complex needs and those children waiting the longest.

The session will look at the development and design of the AAR, which is co-produced with adopters and informed by Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and Secure Base principles.

Included will be a sharing of the look and feel of the new format and excerpts from the Toolkit.

We will explore the advantages of using the format and how that works in practice. There will be an opportunity to look at some of the tools in detail and compare through discussion, tools that support assessment and analysis with applicants.

Learning outcomes

• Information about a new method of assessment
• How it can be used in your agency
• Why might it be better for you as a practitioner
• How the AAR can be applied to the current issues in Adoption such as Early Permanency, contact and the assessing of diverse families

About the trainers

Jacqui Bazley 

Jacqui Bazley is one of the founders of the AAR and Toolkit. She has been a SW practitioner and manager in Adoption work since 1988 and is also an adoptive parent of 2 adult children and 2 grandchildren. Jacqui is currently the lead manager in Barnardo’s who are the license holders for the AAR, working in collaboration with Adoption Focus and ACE RAA to support agencies who wish to transition using this new method of assessing adopters.

Sarah McKenna

Sarah McKenna is a Social Work practitioner with Barnardo’s Family Placements team in the Southeast. She has worked with children and families for over 20 years and joined Barnardo’s in 2019. Sarah is currently the lead practitioner for the AAR and provides support and advice to agencies and practitioners who are transitioning to using the AAR. This includes quarterly Practice Workshops to share good practice in assessments.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

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, designated teachers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

In this training session will look in detail at assessing prospective adopters with complex mental and health issues as a critical aspect of the adoption process. The assessment process must consider a wide range of issues, including Body Mass Index (BMI), unhealthy lifestyles, long-term medical conditions, and mental disorders to ensure prospective adopters are able to successfully parent a child and provide a safe and stable home.

Together with Ellie Johnson, a health consultant at CoramBAAF, we will get to the nitty gritty of the assessment process to consider the prospective adopter’s ability to manage their condition, and their ability to provide a secure and supportive environment for a child.

As part of this training, we will consider how to best ensure that prospective adopters receive appropriate treatment and support, so they can meet their adopted child’s needs.

Learning 0utcomes

• Understanding the importance of considering complex mental and health issues in the adoption process
• Awareness of the potential impact of high BMI, unhealthy lifestyles, long-term medical conditions, and mental disorders on an individual’s ability to parent
• Understanding the importance of considering an individual’s ability to manage their condition and provide a stable environment for a child
• Awareness of the importance of ensuring prospective adopters receive appropriate treatment and support
• Understanding the relationship between mental and physical health and its impact on the adoption process

About the trainer

Ellie Johnson

Ellie graduated from Manchester University with a nursing degree and worked as a nurse, midwife, health visitor and specialist public health practitioner in the NHS for 25 years. She was a designated nurse for looked after children for 14 years and chaired a regional LAC nursing network. During this time she was also involved in a joint project with the National Children’s Bureau focusing on inequalities in health experienced by looked after children.

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 info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities) and Independent Professionals.

Details

The two-day training (08 & 09 February 2023) will cover:

• Current Adoption Landscape
• Assessment components and adopter characteristics
• Practice implications for the two-stage adopter’s assessment
• Analysis and intuitive reasoning in assessment: from gut feelings to conscious competence
• Building relationships
• Adult attachment
• Assessing children
• Analysis and learning
• Considering discrepancy
• Hypothesis, critical thinking and reflective practice
• Assessment tools

Assessing social workers need to meet the statutory requirements as well as those of adoption panels. Applicants was to know that their “story” is represented fairly and accurately, and at the same time there is a duty to safeguard vulnerable children. This course will equip adoption practitioners with the knowledge and skills to conduce and manage the adoption assessment process so that the best outcomes are achieved for all.

This training is delivered by specialist trainers at CoramBAAF. Please note that seats are limited.

Learning outcomes

• To explore best practice in the completion of the Prospective Adopter’s Report (PAR)
• To practice and develop an integration of critical assessment tools and techniques within adoption assessments and current best practice
• To explore ways to consider prospective adopters in terms of their capacity to look after children in a safe and responsible way that meets the child’s needs
• Apply learning in the context of the legal framework
• To develop critical thinking and reflective practice in the completion of adoption assessments
• To consider ways of identifying prospective adopter’s competencies and strengths and areas they have or will need to develop

About the trainer

Joan Hunt

Joan has provided Training and consultancy for a range of Independent Agencies and Local Authorities and within this capacity facilitated training on a number of Child Care/ Fostering /Adoption focused subjects to Professionals, family members, Foster Carers and adoptive parents. These have covered a diverse range of subjects; Separation and Loss, Attachments, Secure Base; Therapeutic Re-parenting, Behaviour Management, Life Story,  Managing  food issues, Assessing Sibling Groups, Parenting Teens, Parenting Siblings, Direct Work with Children, Panel Training, Cultural Diversity, Internet Safety , Supervising Social Workers, Fostering Reviews, Disruption Training, Child Development, Caring for Children who have been Sexually Abused, Supporting children in Education, and Parent and Child Arrangements. Joan also undertaken consultancy work including Chairing Disruptions, Life Story Literature Review, and Parent 2 Parent Peer mentoring.

Joan continuously receives high levels of feedback on both her content and delivery of training. She draws heavily from her professional and personal experiences as a former BAAF Trainer Consultant, Social Worker, Adoption Social Worker, Panel Chair, Disruption Chair, Parent and foster carer and applies this to her training with a strong focus on the Childs Lived Experience. Joan also has experience of developing and working with young person’s participation group and is committed to ensuring that the voice of the child is heard and reflected within the care planning process.

Instructions

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

Log in at 09:30 am.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities) and Independent Professionals.

Details

The two-day training (17 & 18 August 2022) will cover:

• Current Adoption Landscape
• Assessment components and adopter characteristics
• Practice implications for the two-stage adopter’s assessment
• Analysis and intuitive reasoning in assessment: from gut feelings to conscious competence
• Building relationships
• Adult attachment
• Assessing children
• Analysis and learning
• Considering discrepancy
• Hypothesis, critical thinking and reflective practice
• Assessment tools

This training is delivered by specialist trainers at CoramBAAF. Please note that seats are limited.

Learning outcomes

• To explore best practice in the completion of the Prospective Adopter’s Report (PAR)
• To practice and develop an integration of critical assessment tools and techniques within adoption assessments and current best practice
• To explore ways to consider prospective adopters in terms of their capacity to look after children in a safe and responsible way that meets the child’s needs
• Apply learning in the context of the legal framework
• To develop critical thinking and reflective practice in the completion of adoption assessments
• To consider ways of identifying prospective adopter’s competencies and strengths and areas they have or will need to develop

Instructions

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

Log in at 09:30 am.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. 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.