Who this is for

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

Details

This expert-led training session has been built on the recent practice webinar on being a good intermediary delivered by Pam Hodgkins and Ange Tanner in April 2022.

During the session, guidance and links to regulations and legislation will be shared by the trainers together with insights from their collective 60+ years of acting as intermediaries and receiving considerable feedback from the experiences of adopted people and birth relatives of the service provided both by NORCAP and by many other agencies and local authorities.

“Experienced presenters who had an inclusive style. Lots of factual information and guidance woven into activities and the chance albeit briefly to network” Attendee, 2022

No one can predict what will work, or will not work in any particular case. This training will aim to encourage participants to weigh up each situation, to consider the hopes and fears, as well as the personality of the person who is asking for the service and to envisage as far as possible from the information available what the circumstances are or may be of the person to be approached.

“Excellent training, very informative and insightful. It was a pleasure to listen to Pam Hodgkins speak about her experiences working in intermediary services. Also lovely to meet other people working in intermediary services.” Attendee, 2022

The training will demonstrate, though examples, how being open to the ideas of others taking time to seek comments and consensus on a proposed course of action may lead to better outcomes rather than relying on a pre-determined format.

Learning outcomes

• To recognise the value of their own experience and to share this with other participants
• To build confidence to take a holistic and innovative approach to each piece of intermediary work they encounter and to risk ‘thinking outside the box’
• To reinforce awareness of the legal and regulatory framework surrounding this work whilst acknowledging the scope it offers for imaginative and responsive ways of working
• To build a network of contacts to share and offer peer support in the future

About the trainer

Pam Hodgkins, Founder of NORCAP and campaigner for universal intermediary services

Pam Hodgkins is an adopted person. She founded NORCAP in 1982 and led the organization for over 25 years. She was the author of Birth Records Counselling a Practical Guide and various journal articles and a contributor to the 2006 Good Practice Guide. In a parallel career in Family Placement and Adoption Support social work she led the establishment of the West Midlands Post Adoption Service in 1994 and became the Chair of several Local Authority Adoption Panels and an IRM panel. Now retired and living in Yorkshire she is actively engaged with others to try to remedy the lack of easily accessible, affordable and universal support and intermediary services for those impacted by adoption prior to implementation of the AA Regs in 1984.

Ange Tanner

Ange is an experienced Intermediary and  retired social worker who worked mainly in adoption and fostering for over 30 years. For many years she was the chair and a volunteer Intermediary of NORCAP. As a birth mother of an adopted adult,  Ange provided evidence to the  Government Select Committee when the Adoption and Children Act 2002 was going through Parliament considering Intermediary Services for Birth relatives and in April 2022 attended the JCHR meeting considering an apology for the forced adoptions of 1950’s-1970’s. Her main concern is the lack of Intermediary services currently available and is working with Pam Hodgkins and others to create a  nationwide  service for adopted adults and their elderly  birth relatives of that  period before it is too late.

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, Managers, Social Workers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities), Children’s Social Workers, Support Workers and Independent Professionals.

Details

A child’s life story considering best practice and learning from lived experiences, will allow adoption professionals to explore their knowledge on how to support children with life story work throughout their life. It will explore child appropriate language on how to speak about difficult topics including, domestic abuse, neglect, physical abuse and other topics that may be challenging.

This will follow the child’s journey from the conclusion from care proceedings to the final adoption order.

The training session will aim to explore a child’s journey through adoption with support from the Child and Family Workers within the Cumbrian children’s adopt team. We will be exploring the importance of relationship building with children, birth family, foster carers and adopters, while discussing life story tools to support communication and openness within families.

During the training we will share best practice and also look at tools used within the Cumbrian team and how this has supported children, foster families and adoptive families during the adoption process.

Learning outcomes

• Exploring and sharing best practice in how we work with children with their birth family, within their foster family and then supporting them moving onto their adoptive family
• Exploring how we support children to understand their life story within their foster home, along with supporting adopters to understand their child’s life story and how to support them to share this with their children
• Sharing practical tools that families have found useful
• Explore examples of the work we have completed
• Looking and reflection on feedback Cumbria County Council have had from adopters, children and foster carers

About the trainers

Kayleigh Ward is a Child and Family Worker who currently resides with the children’s adoption team within Cumbria. Kayleigh has over 5 years’ experience working with children within child protection to adoption. She also has recently completed an advance certificate in therapeutic life story work to further her development to continue to support children. Kayleigh has completed over 80 life story books and has supported over 10 children to move on from foster care to adoption, along with supporting their birth families and adoptive families to understand the child’s life story so far.

Kim Conyers is a Social Worker who currently resides with the childrens’ adoption team within Cumbria. Kim has over 6 years of supporting children within support and protection and adoption. Kim is currently completing her level 2 in BUSS training. Kim has a wealth of knowledge on supporting adoptive families and continues within the team to share her lived experiences and knowledge.

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.