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What is the STAR programme?


The STAR Programme has been designed to support South Gloucestershire's Children's Services to embed our Practice model. It brings together Signs of Safety, Trauma Informed practice and Systemic approaches.

PART 2 is held in PATCHWAY CHILDRENS CENTRE

The WAYPOINT (Working Alongside Young People & Others In Networks Therapeutically) Team is part of the Fostering Service. WAYPOINT provide therapeutically informed support to children, families, foster carers, and professional networks. This support is additional to the support provided by your supervising social worker and children’s social workers.

The monthly WAYPOINT Drop-in sessions are facilitated by Dan Charnock, WAYPOINT Senior Social Worker and are open to all mainstream foster carers. The aim of the WAYPOINT Drop in is to provide a reflective and open space for foster carers to come along and discuss issues or concerns you may be facing. While each session includes a space to reflect on challenges, there is also a significant focus on sharing strategies and thinking about therapeutic approaches to difficult situations and celebrating successes.

You don’t have to be going through a difficult time to attend – peer support, learning and reflection is always valuable, and there is no pressure for anyone to share within the sessions. Topics for each session tend to arise on the day, ensuring the focus is relevant to the content brought to the drop in. However, there is also the option to agree a topic for a future session to enable a more in-depth focus. Discussion often includes topics such as attachment, trauma, and use of therapeutic approaches such as PACE and NVR, and ideas come not only from Dan but from within the group.

The Purpose for the support groups



We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

There will be biscuits and/or cake, coffee, tea, and an opportunity for an informal chat at all of the meetings.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

Sometimes there will be speakers and topics as requested by the group, this will hopefully make it as relevant to your fostering as you like.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP).

The Purpose for these Support Groups: 

6pm-6.30pm Share The Care discussion group with Jakie Dyer *ONLY FOR SHARE THE CARE CARERS*

6.30pm-8pm *OPEN TO ALL Carers* - 'Working with disabled children, challenges and self-care' presented by Mavis Mukambirwa

We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Raising awareness of children affected by parental offending which equips professionals with the knowledge and tools to identify and support these vulnerable children.

Aims of the training -

- To understand why it is important to recognise and consider the needs of children of offenders.
- To be aware of the impact of parental offending at all stages of the criminal justice system.
- To understand how we can efficiently support children affected by offending.
- To be aware of the roles of all sectors in supporting children affected by offending and imprisonment.

This support group will be led by Chris Hill (Foster Carer Development and Training Officer) at:

We will try Skittles at - 
The Rising Sun
Ryecroft Road
Frampton Cotterell
UK, BS362HN

Skittle starts at 7.30pm, we can arrive from 7pm

Go here for more details - https://www.hopunionbrewery.co.uk/rising-sun

Any questions please call or Chris Hill on 07749003099 or email Chris.hill@southglos.gov.uk

The Purpose for the support groups

We realise that fostering can be difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

Although these will be informal meetings, sessions may have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who are new to supports groups and may feel awkward about coming along. 

Sometimes there will be speakers and topics as requested by the group, this will hopefully make it as relevant to you and fostering.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP)

Course tutor: Holly Shephard (Trainee Educational Psychologist)

Would you like to know more about supporting children with attention difficulties including ADHD?

If so, please join our session run by the South Glos Educational Psychology Service. The session aims to give you a wider knowledge of ADHD and attention-related difficulties, how a deficit in executive functioning fits into the bracket of ADHD, and which children are more likely to have these types of difficulties and why.

We hope for you to come away with strategies to help a child cope with attention difficulties, to help you manage and support a child with these difficulties and to minimise the knock-on effects on family life. We also aim for you to have an understanding of the difficulties the child may be experiencing at school and help you understand the support system at school.’

This session is broken into 3 parts with activities throughout.

This blended half day course is designed specifically for online delivery to smaller groups of participants. It covers what self-harm is, and why people might hurt themselves, as well as providing space to think about what a helpful response to someone who has hurt themselves might be. It has a strong emphasis on bringing the voices of people who use self-harm to the virtual room, and provides space and time for reflection. This course has been developed to either stand alone or complement others in a series of events, and utilises a range of tools to offer a participative online training experience.

Worksheets, handouts and copies of the presentation will be available to complement learning.

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 854 0103 8702
Passcode: 000569

Our expertise: Self-Injury Support has 30 years’ experience in delivering high quality self-harm education to a wide variety of settings and participants. Our approach is participative and reflective, and is focussed on bringing the voice of people who use self-harm into the room, building empathy and confidence for supporters.

The standard charge for this course is £57. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions

The Purpose for the support groups


We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

There will be biscuits and/or cake, coffee, tea, and an opportunity for an informal chat at all of the meetings.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

Sometimes there will be speakers and topics as requested by the group, this will hopefully make it as relevant to your fostering as you like.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Cadbury Heath Children’s Centre