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

In this practice webinar, we will be exploring how we support our prospective adopters when they wish to adopt for the second time. As an adoption agency, this starts from the point of referral, into assessment, right through to supporting the placement itself.

During the webinar, we will uncover the nuances of adopting again and navigating the intricacies of a second adoption. Together we will learn effective strategies for nurturing a harmonious relationship among adopted siblings and we will learn to understand how to prepare an existing child for the arrival of an adopted sibling.

Donna and Ayesha will discuss navigating the challenges of transitions with another child in the family and will explore methods for completing life story work when your children’s backgrounds differ.

We will also explore the topic of keeping in touch arrangements with children’s birth relatives when they vary between adopted children.

This webinar is essential for adoption professionals involved in the assessment processes. From understanding the dynamics of adopting again to practical tips on sibling relationships and transitioning, this session provides valuable knowledge to enrich your services.

Learning 0utcomes

• The rewards and challenges of adopting again
• Parenting adoption siblings
• Preparing their 1^st child for welcoming an adopted sibling
• Managing transitions with another child
• Completing life story work when their children’s backgrounds are different
• How to manage differing contact arrangements

About the trainers

Donna Mease

Donna is a highly skilled and experienced social worker specialising in supporting children and families through the transition into adoption. Donna is responsible for co-ordinating ARC’s Therapeutic Adoption Support Service and is trained in Theraplay; DDP and Therapeutic work with Looked After Children, including Therapuetic Life Story Work.  She leads a highly skilled and committed team to ensure ARC Adoption offers the best possible support tailored to the individual needs of children and their adoptive families.

Ayesha Foster

Ayesha has worked with children for over 25 years and started her career as a nursery nurse. She is a highly skilled social worker who is committed to improving outcomes for children and families involved in adoption. She transferred to the position of Social Work Assistant in a busy Children’s Team in Newcastle in 2001 where she was seconded to undertake a Master’s Degree in Social Work at Durham University. In July 2006 she then spent two years working within child protection, children in need and looked after children teams. Ayesha then moved to North Tyneside’s Adoption Team and completed focused work with adopters on concurrency and foster to adopt placements. During her time with the local authority, Ayesha continued her professional development and gained the PQ Specialist Child Care award in 2012. Ayesha joined ARC Adoption at its inception in 2014 and is proud of her contribution to the agency’s success.

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 2019, as part of the ongoing development of services and practice across the sector, AFKA Cymru was commissioned by the National Adoption Service for Wales to develop 4 new Good Practice Guides in key areas – Contact; Transitions and Early Support; Working with Birth parents; and Adoption Support.

All the guides are intrinsically linked and capture good practice examples across Wales as well as up to date research and evidence based approaches from across the UK,  helping bring adoption up to date and ensuring a system that is fit for purpose – that acknowledges complexities and challenges, and respects children’s multiple relationships and identities.

A trauma informed approach, that helps us understand the impact of early trauma and to identify immediate and predicted needs of families, is at the heart of the guides and practice applications that have been developed.

The importance of relationships is a major theme: how we develop trusting relationships, how we see and appreciate other perspectives and how this helps the adults involved to remain child focused.

In this practice session, we will provide an overview of the key principles of each Good Practice Guide and discussing practice implications. We will be specifically considering the key principles of staying connected with people who are important to the child, how we keep doors open as much as we possibly can, and how we think about “contact” across all our work much more in terms of relationships, family, loss and identity.

To help us think about some of the challenges involved in staying connected, we will be considering relevant case studies and taking opportunities to learn with colleagues about positive approaches.

Learning outcomes

• Explore common principles of the 4 NAS Good Practice Guides
• Consider key principles of each guide and implications for practice
• Acknowledge the significance of continuity in relationships for children, and the challenges of staying connected with people who are important across a lifetime
• Use case examples and peer discussion to think about what is going well and how practice can be further developed.

About the trainers

Helen Hawksworth and Sarah Coldrick

Helen is a qualified social worker and Trainer Consultant with AFKA Cymru, and works closely with the National Adoption Service in Wales. She has worked in a range of settings within Local Authority Children’s Services from 1995 including Child Protection, Youth Justice, Residential Care, Fostering, Child Health and Disability, and Adoption before joining St David’s Children Society in 2011 and then AFKA in 2018.

Sarah was legal consultant for BAAF Cymru and now AFKA Cymru since 2009.  Prior to this she was a local authority solicitor and before that worked with children in inner London. Sarah works across the permanency sector within AFKA, providing advice to colleagues and on the advice line as well as working on projects for NAS and Welsh Government. Sarah is an adoptive parent of three daughters and also has some fostering experience.

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

This training session is designed by CVAA and senior adoption practitioners at Adopt East service to help you explore with peers the key themes and challenges involved in direct contact between a child and their birth family.

Direct communication and maintaining contact with a child’s birth family has become an expectation in modern adoptions. This practice, also known as open adoption, allows for the child to have a connection with their biological family and the opportunity to know their history and cultural heritage. Direct contact also promotes ongoing communication between the adoptive family and birth family, which helps to build a relationship between the two families and allows the birth family to be a part of the child’s life in a meaningful way.

Having open lines of communication with a birth family can provide a sense of security and comfort for the adopted child, especially as they grow up and may have questions about their identity.

This training is an opportunity to explore with your peers the preparation, assessment, challenges and successes around direct contact within Adoption. You will be able to network with practitioners from other agencies, share best practice and glean new ideas.

Learning 0utcomes

• Experiences of Adopt East alongside participating agencies, the impact of these and how organisations can address these
• Key findings within research on contact
• What organisations can do to adapt approaches to contact
• Look at the future of direct contact

About the trainers

Pam Whittaker, Ann French and Shona Lawson

Pam Whittaker is the Executive Head of Adopt East which is an alliance of 8 Local Authorities in the East of England.  Pam has been a qualified social worker for over 25 years, 14 of which have been in the adoption arena.

Ann French is the Early Permanence Team Manager who has a lead for modernizing adoption.  Ann has worked in Social Care for 30 years with the last 7 years in adoption.

Shona Lawson is the Adoption Support Co-Ordinator for Adopt East.  Shona is a qualified social worker with over 25 years of experience with children and their families.  Shona has worked in Adoption for 14 years.

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

“Leigh’s friendly and approachable manner made this training easy to engage with and accessible. Lots of resources shared, lots of good practice shared.” – Attendee, 2021

You will have an opportunity to learn what Adoption Focus are doing in terms of a specific aspect of this work, whilst at the same time having the opportunity to identify the situations you find most challenging and work in smaller groups to consider various solutions.

You will be able to hear from the latest research, practice and lived experience.

“The presentation was well delivered and relatable with good opportunity for group discussion and questions. I felt that I learnt some new ideas that I can take away to use in practice and share with colleagues.” – Attendee, 2022

You will be able to network with practitioners from other agencies, share best practice and glean new ideas.

Learning outcomes

• To learn from latest research and hear from the lived experience
• To consider the needs and experiences of older children awaiting adoption
• To think about what we need from prospective adopters for older children
• To explore best practice regarding assessments: What do we need to know about prospective adopters of older children? What evidence would we need and how would we get it?
• To discuss best practice

About the trainer

Leigh Smith

Leigh is the Deputy Manager of Training at Adoption Focus. She has worked with Adoption Focus since 2017. Before this Leigh worked for a Local Authority in their supervised contact team and worked for an independent fostering agency identifying placements for 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

The front-of-house team, adoption enquiries team, receptionists, office administrators, business support and service volunteers

Details

This practice webinar will look at how the quality and effectiveness of a Front Line Enquires Service is key to the adoption service as it provides an essential role in the recruitment of prospective adopters for the children waiting and more specifically for those children who wait the longest. A view of an agency will be formed by an enquirer/prospective adopter at the point of first contact and receiving a prompt, inclusive, and informative response to an adoption enquiry is very much welcomed and valued.

“Prospective adopters generally appreciate an open and honest conversation with them with regards to the adoption process, the current adoption climate and the children waiting”.

This session is an opportunity to explore with your peers effective adoption enquiry processes and ways of working with prospective adopters at the point of initial enquiry that instils confidence in taking the next steps on their adoption journey.

Learning 0utcomes

• Obtain an overview of a front-line enquiries service from the point of first contact/initial enquiry through to submissions/acceptance of Registration of Interest (RoI)
• Exploration of the information sharing and capturing and signposting that is required at the enquiry stage and how this effectively helps prepare, in the current adoption climate, prospective adopters for the next stage in the recruitment process
• Consider how the National Recruitment Campaigns Mystery shopping analysis/report/feedback can be used to improve front-line enquiries services
• Share best practice through group discussion with others

About the trainers

Darryl Pottinger, Ruth Awai-FitzGerald and Anna Webster

Darryl is the Senior Enquiries Officer at PACT and has, for the past 9 years, provided advice and guidance to prospective adopters in preparation for their adoption journey and has been central to the development of PACT’s front line enquiries service. He is a foster parent with 15 years’ experience working to achieve successful outcomes and permanency for children.

Ruth is an Enquiries Officer and PACT adopter. She has been in her role in the enquiries team since February 2022. Prior to that, she regularly spoke at information events about her adoption experience with PACT and was also involved in an interview with radio Berkshire and a Facebook live about being a black adopter. Ruth’s story about adoption after infertility featured in an article in Fabulous magazine in 2021.

Anna has been working at PACT since 2019. She first volunteered to help deliver the information events that PACT holds for prospective adopters, before helping the family finding team during COVID. She is now part of the enquiries team and works as an Enquiries Officer. Anna has prior experience working in childcare for adopted children in therapeutic and educational settings.

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

During this practice webinar you will have the opportunity to explore ideas around family finding in adoption and start to think about the methods Coram practitioners use and how we can ‘think outside the box’ to try new ways. Alternative family finding can have lots of benefits.

‘Prospective adopters tell us that having the opportunity to engage with ‘real’ children helps them to establish if they feel a connection and encourages them to widen their thinking about the sort of child they envisage parenting.’

We will also explore ‘what makes a good profile’, reflecting on how we write profiles, the information we include and why we include it. Profiles are such a big part of family finding and it is essential we get this task right for the children we work with as often it can mean finding the right family or not.

During the session we will explore including children in their family finding and the importance of being open and honest with children and supporting them on this journey.

Lastly, we will explore the role of the family finder. The role is such a key part of a child’s journey, so what does the role involve? How can we develop our practice as family finders? What works well? What can be done differently?

The adoption climate is changing all the time and it is essential that family finding can adapt and change to the challenges we face and develop with the ever changing world of adoption.

Learning 0utcomes

• Current adoption landscape, court delays and who are the children waiting?
• Profiling children for adoption across a range of media, both local and national
• Preparation of written profiles – what makes a good profile?
• Featuring children in the wider media (including good practice for video profiles) – key issues for consideration
• Including children in their family finding process – how do we prepare them for this?
• The benefits of alternative family finding, including Adoption Activity Days & Exchange Events
• The role of a family finder
• Best practice guidance for family finders

About the trainer

Kirsty Hammonds and Stephanie Bentley

Kirsty is a Child Placement Consultant with the Activity Days Team at Coram. She has worked in the team for 9 years, organising and running Activity Days for both Adoption and Fostering. Kirsty works closely supporting RAA’s, VAA’s and LA’s during this time with their family finding and have also delivered training workshops around Profile writing. Before joining the Activity Days Team, Kirsty was an Adoption Social worker for nearly 10 years, family finding for children and assessing and supporting adopters.

Stephanie has been employed by Coram as a social worker in the Activity Days team for four years. Her role includes organising and facilitating both adoption and fostering family finding events and undertaking intensive family finding for priority children. Prior to working for Coram, Stephanie was a children’s social worker at Herefordshire Council and a fostering social worker at Walsall Council.

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

Note: The national recruitment campaign includes a particular focus on sibling placements. This training is therefore particularly relevant to all agencies. 

In this webinar you will have an opportunity to consider how we can attract potential adopters for siblings and how we inspire confidence in those who may be initially overawed by the possibility of parenting more than one child…all at once! As practitioners, what are the qualities and experiences we want adopters of siblings to be able to demonstrate, or cultivate.

“Well paced seminar with good use of break out rooms to offer group discussion. Provided a lot of food for thought and ideas from other agencies sharing good practice.” – Attendee, 2021

You will have an opportunity to learn what Adoption Focus are doing in terms of a specific aspect of this work, whilst at the same time having the opportunity to identify the situations you find most challenging and work in smaller groups to consider various solutions.

“It was really thought provoking having a speaker who had adopted siblings talking so candidly about both her and touching on her husbands experiences too. The case study was interesting and hearing about the training of prospective adopters.” – Attendee, September 2022

Learning outcomes

• Do we tailor some of our preparation and training accordingly and if so in what ways?
• Are our Adoption Panels confident generally in approving adopters for siblings or is there a tendency to be risk averse?
• When it comes to matching, how confident and clear are we in evidencing the additional emotional, practical, financial support which our adopters may require in order to parent a sibling group?
• What specific resources do we provide in terms of adoption support; what challenges do contact issues raise for sibling placements?
• What do we know about outcomes for children placed with siblings?

About the trainer

Leigh Smith

Leigh has been a Training and Volunteer Co-Ordinator with Adoption Focus since 2017. Before this she worked in the Local Authority and then within a private fostering agency. Her roles have included supervising contact for looked after children, finding suitable foster placements for children and young people, mentoring adolescents in foster care and working in residential units. She now works within the training team at Adoption Focus and the post-adoption support team.

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

Adolescence can be a particularly challenging time for both adopted young people and their parents. It is a time when parents need not only a great deal of support emotionally, but also strategies to help them think about how to best support their young person.

In this practice webinar, you will be able to learn from senior adoption practioners at Coram what they consider best practice in supporting young people entering adulthood. The adoption team at Coram has created a program based on the Ministry of Parenting’s parenting skills course, with additional content tailored specifically for families of adopted adolescents.

Together with fellow adoption support colleagues, you will be able to explore their practice that has been informed by the families Coram had worked with over the years. You will spend some time on their reflections and how their learning can improve your practice going forward.

Learning 0utcomes

• a space to think about the extra challenges of adolescence for adopted young people
• strategies and ideas to hold in mind when working with adoptive parents with young people in adolescence
• practical takeaways to sufficiently support the families you work with
• reflecting on your own practice
• networking with adoption colleagues in the same/similar role

About the trainers

Annie Moser and Debbie Connolly

Annie is a senior social worker, working in the Adoption Support Team at Coram. Annie worked in the Recruitment and Assessment Team at Coram for many years before that, including at a time when cases were held throughout the whole adoption process. Annie qualified as a social worker in 1983, and worked in advice, support and counselling for young homeless people, an HIV health outreach team and as a hospital HIV/drugs social worker. Annie moved to Coram in the 1990s and have worked there since. Annie now works as the lead on parenting groups, and also focuses on education work, alongside case work with families.

Debbie qualified as a social worker in the mid-1980s. Her first job was as a hospital social worker linking with the oncology, ante natal and maternity wards and a community child development team. Throughout the 1990s and since, Debbie has worked in the area of adoption- recruiting and assessing families, family finding for children and the matching and linking process. Debbie has worked specifically in adoption support work for the last 10 years. Alongside my work at Coram, Debbie also worked part-time for twelve years for The Post Adoption Centre as an Outreach Counsellor, working with birth parents, adopted people and adopters. Debbie now focuses at Coram on group work- the parenting groups, and a support group we have recently set up. Debbie has a specific interest in ‘Life- Story Talk’.

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

Marketing Leads within Voluntary Adoption Agencies. Please do not book onto this event unless your place on it has already been confirmed with Alice.

Details

More details in the joining instruction email.

Instructions

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

An opportunity to explore the themes, challenges and successes around working with birth relatives. Together we will explore challenges and opportunities created through the pandemic and how this has influenced changes within CAFIS to how we bring birth and adopted families together to support their child/ren.

“Everyone who wished to got a chance to speak and share. Good idea sharing forum, good to hear how other agencies are managing dilemmas and situations” – attendee, 2020

This webinar will explore how professionals who work with adopted children engage with birth relatives and the effectiveness of this.  We will look at how birth parents and relatives with lived experience of forced adoption can support current services, and discuss how it could be useful to enlist the help of birth relatives to assist with future service development around adoption.

“I attended this training on my 2nd week in my now adoption role. Prior to this I worked for 10 years on the LAC m. I enjoyed changing my perspective and hearing adoption workers views” – attendee, 2021

There will be an opportunity for participants to reflect on birth relatives input during both stage one and stage two of the foster carer and prospective adoptive parents’ assessment, how this affects current services and how it could be improved.

You will be able to network with practitioners from other agencies, share best practice and glean new ideas.

Learning outcomes

• Better understanding of the stigma that birth relatives face both by professionals and wider society particularly birth fathers.
• How to engage birth relatives.
• How the needs of children are often overshadowed by the needs of foster carers/adoptive parents.
• How lived experience can support the development of service which benefits the child.
• How involving birth parents/relatives can impact and influence the views of foster/adoptive parents in regards to family time/keeping in touch arrangements

About the trainers

CAFIS (Connecting Adoptive families Independent Services) Barnardos, is commissioned to provide a number of services on behalf of the RAA Adoption Partnership Southeast, including birth parent support, access to records, intermediary and keeping in touch arrangements for children subject to adoption and SGO.

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.